THE  WHOLE  TRUTH 
ABOUT  ALCOHOL 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 
TORONTO 


THE  WHOLE  TRUTH 
ABOUT  ALCOHOL 


BY 
GEORGE  ELLIOT  FLINT 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 
BY 

DR.  ABRAHAM  JACOBI 


Media  tutissimus  ibis 
OVID 


gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1919 

All  rights  reserved 


<? 


o 


COPYRIGHT,  1919 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  March,  1919 


INTRODUCTION 

Mr.  Flint  has  asked  me  to  write  an  introduction  to 
his  book.  I  could  not  refuse  though,  or  perhaps  be- 
cause, contrary  to  my  habits,  it  so  happens  that  per- 
sonally in  several  months  I  tasted  no  alcohol.  Both 
my  habit  and  my  abstinence  ought  to  make  me  impar- 
tial. As  a  practitioner  and  dealing  with  the  well  and 
the  sick,  I  have  had  many  opportunities  either  to 
order  or  forbid  the  use,  either  in  small  or  large 
amounts,  of  an  alcoholic  beverage.  Neither  those  who 
were  ordered  or  forbidden  enjoyed  my  interference, — 
least,  perhaps,  those  who  claimed  to  be  prohibition- 
ists. I  wonder  whether  Timothy  (Chap.  V.  23)  was 
pleased  or,  if  he  was  a  prohibitionist,  disgusted  with 
his  friend,  St.  Paul,  who  advised  him  not  to  drink 
any  more  water,  but  to  use  a  little  wine  for  his  stom- 
ach's  sake  and  his  frequent  infirmities. 

The  book,  which  I  hope  many  will  enjoy,  I  beg  to 
introduce  to  the  public.  Nevertheless,  it  contains 
some  things  I  do  not  enjoy  myself.  The  author  speaks 
ill  of  many  friends  of  mine  whom  he  calls  "  reform- 
ers and  other  extremists."  I  am  no  extremist,  but 
mean  to  be  a  reformer,  and  hope  to  continue  to  be 
one;  that  is  why  I  recommend  this  book,  and  trust  I 
shall  not  be  classed  with  those  whom  my  friend,  Mr. 
Flint,  calls  "usually  a  nuisance."  So  I  can  not  al- 

v 


405787 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

ways  agree  with  the  author,  but  I  admire  his  ingenuity 
and  the  freedom  of  his  expressions.  He  has  a  won- 
derful knowledge  of  drastic  English  and  uses  it  to 
advantage;  and  a  knowledge  of  popular  physiology, 
and  makes  no  mistake  in  the  use  of  scientific  facts  and 
current  medical  literature.  There  are  some  few  medi- 
cal men  whom  he  disrespects  as  much  as  I  do.  There 
are  some  who  know  so  little  that  they  seem  ignorant 
of  medical  thought;  one  was  a  full-fledged  prohibi- 
tionist. Of  this  variety  is  Horsley.  I  am  a  doctor 
myself  and  think  much  of  Horsley, — or  rather,  of 
what  he  was ;  and  should  forgive  him  for  thinking,— 
if  he  ever  thought  of  me, — as  little  as  I  hope  he  did 
of  me.  Though  he  was  a  thinking  and  well-informed 
person,  he  suffered  from  the  inadequacy  of  his  spe- 
cializing tendency  and  practice.  He  was  a  competent 
surgeon.  But  no  specialist,  great  or  small,  outgrows 
his  narrowness.  There  is  no  greater  praise  for  any 
specialist  than  to  speak  of  him  as  a  good  doctor.  It 
may  be  that  you,  like  me,  appreciate  the  fact  that  in 
the  profession  doctors  are  getting  scarce,  and  good 
doctors  amongst  the  specialists  are  the  rarest  of  birds. 
If  a  reader  of  these  lines  happens  to  be  one  of  my 
colleagues,  I  take  this  opportunity  to  ask  his  pardon. 
It  is  not  he  of  whom  I  speak ;  he  knows  it.  So  it  has 
happened  that  some  specialistic  practitioners, — even  a 
famous  specialistic  surgeon  like  Horsley, — got  into 
the  thin  ranks  of  radical  anti-alcoholists, — "  prohi- 
bitionists. ' ' 

The  temptation  for  lay  prohibitionists  is  their  igno- 
rance.    They  do  not  know,  or  ignore,  the  fact  that 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

the  most  positive  and  strongest  medicines  may  ex- 
hibit antagonistic  features.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
past  century  of  medicine,  for  instance,  they  had  pro- 
longed discussions  about  opium.  They  knew  that 
opium  was  a  depressant,  even  a  narcotic;  they  also 
fought  for  opium  as  a  stimulant, — "non  sedat, 
mehercle  non  sedat."  So  was  alcohol  a  stimulant  (or 
irritant)  ;  in  other  gospels  it  was  a  depressor,  a  para- 
lyzer.  Meanwhile  it  took  as  great  a  pharmacologist 
as  Cushny  to  prove  (lately)  that  alcohol  is  indeed  a 
cerebral  depressant  which  manifests  itself  in  a  con- 
dition not  of  irritation  but  of  comfort  and  well-being. 
Disease  is  liable  to  lose  its  strongest  ally  when  alcohol 
allays  anxiety  and  worry. 

My  own  experience  of  more  than  half  a  century  is 
that  in  the  worst  cases  of  fatal  sepsis, — diphtheria, 
erysipelas,  puerperal  fever, — alcohol  in  the  largest 
doses  furnishes  the  only  salvation.  Doses  differ  ac- 
cording to  ages  and  indications.  Thus  the  same  ma- 
terial may  become  a  stimulant  or  a  depressant;  and 
in  the  axioms  of  the  teaching  of  Salerno,  nearly  a 
thousand  years  ago,  wine  is  called  the  milk  of  old 
age,  and  milk  the  wine  of  the  young.  And  modern 
hygiene  which  supplies  the  soldier  with  plenty  of 
food  renders  alcohol  superfluous  and  coffee  a  substi- 
tute for  alcohol.  My  old  friend  Horatius  Flaccus 
(Epistle  I.,  xix.)  knew  that  quite  well,  when  he  stated 
that  no  poem  written  by  a  water  drinker  lives  a  long 
time.  It  takes  wine  to  stimulate  the  poet.  "Nulla 
placere  diu  neo  vivere  carmina  possunt  quae  scribun- 
iur  aquae  potoribus." 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

This  little  book,  which  it  gives  me  a  great  pleasure 
to  introduce,  is  a  protest  against  the  outrages  of  pes- 
simistic prohibitionists.  Its  positive  assertiveness 
compares  favorably  with  the  lying  allegations  of  many 
of  the  partisan  newspapers  or  magazines  of  the  wrath- 
ful prohibitionists.  The  author's  statements  are 
based  on  scientific  facts  and  are  presented  with  an 
undue  courtesy,  greater  than  I  ought  to  have  expected 
from  the  lack  of  veracity  and  unscrupulous  inventive- 
ness of  resentful  rage,  which  characterize  the  writings 
of  many  ardent  prohibitionists  whose  teachings  he 
refutes. 

A.  JACOBI,  M.  D. 


PREFACE 

My  aim  in  this  work  is  to  tell  the  whole  truth  about 
Alcohol.  More  dangerous  far  than  an  untruth  is  a 
half-truth;  for,  while  the  half-truth  is  plausible  and 
misleads,  the  frank  untruth  may  arouse  suspicion. 
Also,  the  latter  can  be  more  easily  refuted. 

Undoubtedly  alcohol  is  an  evil;  but  it  is  not  all 
evil,  and  I  hope  to  show  that  alcohol  is  often  of  much 
benefit,  and  that,  when  wisely  used,  it  can  be  a  miti- 
gator  of  pain,  a  saver  of  life,  and  frequently  a  great 
comforter  to  overworked  and  unnerved  humanity  in 
their  pitiless  vortex  of  the  awful  struggle  to  live. 

The  way,  however,  to  uplift  and  to  strengthen  men 
is  not  to  make  their  desired  indulgences  impossible. 
The  better  way  is  to  teach  them  moderation,  self-con- 
trol and,  particularly,  self-respect. 

While  I  shall  try  not  to  be  dogmatic,  disagreeable, 
unjust,  or  intolerant,  I  shall  uphold  the  truth,  at  any 
price,  and  regardless  of  whom  it  may  hurt.  In  so 
doing,  I  shall  reason  from  facts,  not  fancies;  from 
convictions,  not  prejudices ;  and  from  whole-,  and  not 
half-truths. 

Assuredly  it  is  not  safe  to  believe  everything,  one 
hears,  reads,  or  even  sees.  One  should  believe  only 
what  one  understands. 

Persons,  whose  statements  can  be  relied  upon  im- 
ix 


x  PREFACE 

plicitly;  that  is  to  say,  without  proof,  or,  at  least, 
without  some  cogent  reasons  for  such  statements,  are 
about  as  rare  as  the  pithecanthropi. 

That  we  can  not  believe  always  what  is  before  our 
eyes  is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  when  we  see  a  pres- 
tidigitateur  pull  out  of  an  apparently  empty  hat 
wriggling  live  rabbits,  we  do  not  believe  that  a  ma- 
gician has  miraculously  created  cuniculi.  Our  sense 
tells  us  there  is  some  trick,  although  we  do  not  know 
what  it  is.  If  we  understood,  our  wonder  would 
vanish. 

Whence,  to  fire  the  reader's  understanding,  not 
merely  with  dry  statistics,  but  with  the  clear  light  of 
reason  based  upon  fact,  is  that  to  which  I  very  hum- 
bly aspire. 

G,  E.  F. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  .  v 


PREFACE 


IX 


I    HUMAN  PSYCHOLOGY  AND  NATIONAL  PRO- 
HIBITION     3 

II    AFTER    PROHIBITION    OF    ALCOHOL,    WHAT 

NEXT? 16 

III  Do  CITIZENS  NEED  NURSES? 19 

IV  THE  TYRANNY  OF  NATIONAL  PROHIBITION    .     25 
V    THE  INCREASE  IN  DRUG  ADDICTS  ....     27 

VI    NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  UNJUST  TO  THE  IN- 
DIVIDUAL     30 

VII    THE  DANGER  OF  HABITUAL  LIQUOR  DRINK- 
ING      .     .     .      . 38 

VIII    THE  WEBB-KENYON  ACT  AND  ITS  PROBABLE 

CONSEQUENCES 42 

IX    WOULD  PRIVATE  DISTILLATION  FOLLOW  NA- 
TIONAL PROHIBITION? 45 

X    NEED  OF  STRICT  ENFORCEMENT  OF  EXISTING 

LIQUOR  LAWS 49 

XI    NATIONAL  DECEIT  AFTER  NATIONAL  PROHI- 
BITION         52 

XII    LET  THE  DRINK  PROBLEM  TAKE  CARE  OF 

ITSELF 57 

xi 


Xll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII  THE   WORKINGMAN    SANS    DRINKING   AND 

SMOKING 60 

XIV  THE  WORKINGMAN'S  CLUB — THE  SALOON   .     64 
XV    THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FANATICS    ...      .72 

XVI  ARE  ABSTAINERS  SUPERIOR? 81 

XVII  ALCOHOL  AND  CANDY 84 

XVIII  ALCOHOL  AND  WAR 88 

XIX  ALCOHOL  IN  THE  TROPICS  .     .     .     .     .      .97 

XX  ALCOHOL  AND  EFFICIENCY 103 

XXI  ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT 110 

XXII  ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON 126 

XXIII  EFFECTS  OF,  AND  FACTS  ABOUT,  ALCOHOL     .  140 

XXIV  ALCOHOL,  LIFE  INSURANCE,  AND  LONGEVITY  161 
XXV  ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY 190 

XXVI    ALCOHOL  AND  POVERTY 201 

XXVII    ALCOHOL  AND  CRIME 205 

XXVIII    ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE      .     .     .     .     .      .210 

XXIX    THE    NON-ALCOHOLIC    CAUSE    OF    MAN'S 

PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION 231 

XXX    How  TO  PREVENT  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION  248 
XXXI    A  PRACTICAL  PREVENTIVE  OF  APOPLEXY     .  265 

ADDENDUM 
ALCOHOL  ECONOMICALLY  AND  PRACTICALLY  CONSIDERED  269 

CARDINAL  GIBBONS  ON  THE  NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  OF 
ALCOHOL 274 

INDEX  .  .  279 


THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT 
ALCOHOL 


UNi 


THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT 
ALCOHOL 

CHAPTER  I 

HUMAN   PSYCHOLOGY   AND   NATIONAL  PROHIBITION 

IT  is  a  common  delusion  to  believe  that  we  can  cre- 
ate. God  alone  can  create.  Man  can  merely  direct, 
reduce,  or  develop,  the  created  attributes  of  living 
matter  by  modifications  of  its  environment.  We  must 
remember  also  that,  in  all  living  matter,  the  evil  at- 
tributes can  be  overcome  by  the  good  attributes,  only 
if  the  latter  predominate. 

Thus,  if  the  created  matter  is  a  man,  in  whom  there 
is  more  good  than  bad,  the  man  is  reputed  good; 
whereas,  if  a  man's  evil  attributes  are  and  remain  in 
the  ascendant,  despite  all  environmental  influences 
tending  to  check  their  development,  such  as  moral 
suasion,  punishment,  etc.,  then  that  man  is  reputed 
bad,  and  becomes,  after  a  certain  lapse  of  time,  irre- 
claimable. 

Such  is  the  habitual  criminal.  Yet,  while  we  in- 
carcerate that  unfortunate  to  protect  society,  let  us 
not  blame  him.  The  chronic  criminal  has  always  a 
bad  heredity,  immediate  or  remote;  and  a  bad  hered- 


4G   vwaafcB  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 


ity  goes  usually  with  another  handicap,  a  bad  en- 
vironment. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  faults  and  weaknesses  of  char- 
acter can  be  overcome.  Sometimes  they  can,  and 
sometimes  they  can  not.  No  man  possesses  anything, 
with  which  to  fight  his  evil  propensities,  but  his  good 
propensities;  and,  as  the  good,  as  well  as  the  bad,  is 
inherited,  or  bestowed  upon  him  without  his  wish,  it  is 
hardly  his  fault  if  the  good  in  him  happens  to  be 
weaker  than  the  bad  in  him.  While  it  is  true  that 
what  a  man  does  is,  in  a  sense,  his  own  fault,  it  is  not 
true  that  he  himself  is  his  own  fault. 

We  say,  for  example,  that  a  weakness  for  drink 
can  be  overcome  by  an  effort  of  the  will.  It  can,  if 
the  effort  of  the  will  is  made;  but  if  there  is  no  will 
for  the  effort,  there  will  be  no  effort,  and,  in  that 
case,  the  weakness  for  drink  will  not  be  overcome. 

When  a  patient  manifests  alarming  symptoms,  no 
good  physician,  after  he  has  suppressed  the  symptoms 
by  an  injection  of  morphine,  believes  that  he  has 
cured  the  disease  responsible  for  the  symptoms.  If  a 
surgeon  should  "pack"  a  wound,  thereby  preventing 
the  flow  of  pus  from  it,  the  patient  would  die  speedily 
of  septic  poisoning. 

But  like  that  hypothetical  surgeon,  who,  happily, 
is  only  hypothetical,  are  our  well-meaning  advocates 
of  National  Prohibition. 

Let  us  imagine  the  dream  of  National  Prohibition 
to  have  become  a  fact.  No  one  can  now  drink  any 
alcoholic  beverage.  It  is  not  obtainable,  because  none 
is  manufactured.  One  safety  outlet,  and  a  large  one, 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PROHIBITION          5 

for  the  stream  of  life  has  been  effectually  dammed. 
We  shall  call  this  stream,  which  has  been  abruptly 
shut  off,  The  Desire  for  Stimulation  and  Forgetful- 
ness. 

Naturally,  the  damming  of  that  stream,  so  far 
from  having  dried  it  up,  has  increased  its  volume 
enormously.  Then,  either  of  two  things  will  happen. 
The  stream  will  either  burst  the  dam,  and  flow  to 
alcohol  some  way  or  another,  or,  if  its  barriers  prove 
impregnable,  it  will  slip  around  them  and  seek  other 
mediums  for  effects  similar  or  nearly  similar  to  those 
of  alcohol.  In  any  event,  the  stream  will  inevitably 
some  time  burst  its  bounds;  for,  its  source,  though 
buried  deep  in  the  human  heart,  is  fed  by  three  per- 
ennial springs:  The  Desire  for  Stimulation,  The 
Desire  for  Rest,  and  The  Desire  for  For  get  fulness. 

It  is  my  firm  belief  that,  so  long  as  those  three 
Desires  remain  rooted  in  mankind,  State,  National,  or 
International  Prohibition  of  alcohol  will  all  prove 
equally  ineffectual. 

To  extirpate,  so  as  to  destroy  completely  any 
created  human  instinct,  is  as  impossible  of  accom- 
plishment by  man,  as  it  would  be  for  him  to  create  a 
perfectly  new  instinct;  it  being  no  more  conceivable 
that  something  should  become  nothing,  than  that 
nothing  should  become  something.  While  instincts 
can  be  modified  or  developed,  they  can  not  be  de- 
stroyed. 

Persons  there  are  who  appear  to  be  organically 
incapable  of  living  and  letting  live.  Nevertheless, 
they  must  "let  live/'  because  mankind  will  live  as  it 


6      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

sees  fit,  in  spite  of  them.  Fanatics,  reformers,  and 
legislators  notwithstanding,  so  long  as  men  wish  to 
drink,  they  will  drink. 

The  desire  for  alcohol  is  not  an  ordinary  desire;  it 
is  a  powerful  desire.  Watch  men  toil,  particularly 
on  a  hot  day;  follow  them  when  they  wearily  wend 
their  way  homeward  to  their  evening  meal ;  note  with 
what  eagerness  they  seize  the  "can"  to  have  it  filled 
at  the  nearest  saloon,  and,  when  they  again  reach 
home,  half-famished  and  ready  to  devour  their  coarse 
fare,  watch  them  glue  their  parched  lips  to  the  can, 
now  containing  a  refreshingly  cold  creamy  nectar 
that  dispels  their  fatigue  and  mercifully  dulls,  for  a 
time  at  least,  the  keen  sense  of  the  hardness  of  their 
lot. 

Or  look  higher.  Business  men,  boon  companions, 
meet.  They  wish  to  enjoy  a  chat.  A  few  drinks 
stimulate  their  thoughts,  loosen  their  tongues,  lighten 
their  cares,  and  make  them  take  a  better  view  of 
life  generally.  They  are  normal  men.  Usually  they 
do  not  drink  to  excess.  Only  exceptionally  men  be- 
come drunkards. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  desire  for  intoxicants 
is  connected  also  with  sexual  desire.  Before  coupling, 
certain  animals,  especially  birds,  work  themselves  into 
high  degrees  of  excitement.  Mammals  paw  the  earth, 
howl,  and  lash  themselves  into  fine  fury;  birds,  such 
as  the  woodcock  and  sharp-tailed  grouse,  utter  loud 
cries,  erect  their  feathers,  beat  violently  with  their 
wings,  and  either  circle  swiftly  in  air,  or  run  wildly 
about. 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PROHIBITION          7 

All  which  whipped-up  excitement  in  animals  is 
similar  to  that  produced  in  man  by  alcohol;  it  being 
well-known  that  alcohol  acts  like  violent  exercise  in 
exciting  the  sex  instinct — in  fact,  alcohol  is  frequently 
and  deliberately  used  by  man  for  that  purpose. 

Possibly  the  foregoing  is  a  reason,  and  a  weighty 
one,  that  the  desire  for  alcohol  is  so  widespread  and 
ineradicable,  seeing  that  the  instinct  of  species- 
preservation  is  as  indestructible  as  that  of  self-preser- 
vation. 

Nevertheless,  State  Prohibition  is  gaining  in  this 
country.  According  to  a  statement  issued  shortly 
after  the  presidential  election  (1916),  by  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  America,  there  are  now  twenty-four 
out  of  forty-eight  states,  one-half  of  the  states  of 
the  Union,  which  have  declared  for  State-wide  Pro- 
hibition, and  over  60  per  cent,  of  the  population  and 
85  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  the  country  are  now 
under  prohibition  law. 

Yet,  that  does  not  mean  that  the  remaining  "wet" 
states,  or  that  even  any  of  them,  will  follow  suit. 
One  thing,  however,  might  induce  them — Federal  or 
National  Prohibition.  But,  fortunately,  before  a 
Nation-wide  Prohibition  could  be  declared  by  the 
Federal  government,  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  would  be  necessary. 

The  Honorable  Elihu  Root,  one  of  the  brainiest  and 
ablest,  if  not  the  ablest,  statesman  in  this  country, 
thus  expressed  himself,  in  a  letter  to  the  National  As- 
sociation Opposed  to  Woman  Suffrage,  on  December 
7th,  1916;  his  remarks  being  equally  applicable  to 


8     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

the  injustice  of  imposing  prohibition  "on  the  states 
which  do  not  wish  for  it": 

"I  am  against  having  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  amended  so  as  to  impose  Woman  Suf- 
frage on  the  states  which  do  not  wish  for  it.  ... 

' '  For  the  vital  reason :  It  would  be  the  destruction 
of  the  right  of  self-government  and  a  subjection  of 
the  people  of  New  York  to  the  government  of 
others.  .  .  . 

' '  I  think  such  an  attempt  would  be  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  liberty  upon  which  the  American  Union 
was  established  and  without  which  it  could  not 
endure. 

''Without  the  right  of  local  self-government  we 
should  lose  the  better  part  of  our  liberty. 

"This  country  is  so  vast,  the  differences  in  climate, 
in  physical  characteristics,  in  capacities  for  produc- 
tion, in  predominant  industries,  and  the  resultant 
habits  of  living  and  of  thinking  are  so  great,  that 
there  are  necessarily  wide  differences  of  view  as  to  the 
conduct  of  life;  and  to  subject  any  section  of  the 
country,  in  its  local  affairs,  to  the  dictation  of  the 
vast  multitude  of  voters  living  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  would  create  a  condition  of  intolerable 
tyranny;  and,  to  use  the  power  of  the  Nation  to 
bring  about  that  condition,  would  be  to  make  the 
Nation  an  instrument  of  tyranny. 

"It  is  needless  to  argue  that  this  would  ultimately 
destroy  the  nation. ' ' 

Said  former-president  Taft,  speaking  on  The  Na- 
tional Prohibition  of  Alcohol: 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PROHIBITION          9 

"  National  Prohibition  is  a  dangerous  proposition. 
It  would  revolutionize  the  National  government.  It 
would  put  on  the  shoulders  of  the  government  the 
duty  of  sweeping  the  door-steps  of  every  home  in  the 
land.  If  national  legislation  be  passed,  local  govern- 
ment would  be  destroyed.  And  if  you  destroy  local 
government,  you  destroy  one  of  the  things  that  go  to 
make  a  healthy  condition  of  the  national  government. 

"National  Prohibition  would  be  non-enforcing.  It 
would  be  a  confession  on  the  part  of  State  govern- 
ments of  inability  to  control  and  to  regulate  their 
own  especial  business  and  duty.  If  the  matter  were 
placed  under  Federal  control,  it  would  result  in  the 
creation  of  a  machinery  of  government  large  enough 
to  nominate  any  President,  and  would  offer  too  great 
an  opportunity  to  persons  seeking  to  perpetuate  their 
powers  in  Washington. ' ' 

Even  in  the  event  of  there  being  a  national  pro- 
hibition of  alcohol  by  amendment  of  the  Constitution 
(requiring  a  two-thirds  vote  in  both  houses  of  Con- 
gress), before  such  a  federal  law  would  become 
operative  there  would  be  the  requirement  that  the 
amendment  be  ratified  by  the  legislatures  of  three- 
fourths  of  the  states,  and  there  would  be  allowed  to 
the  states  seven  years  for  ratification. 

A  glaring  injustice,  however,  of  this  apparently 
just  procedure  would  be  that  the  sparsely  inhabited 
states  would  have  an  equal  voice  with  the  densely 
populated  ones.  For  example,  the  four  least  populous 
states  in  the  Union  would  have  just  as  much  weight 
as  the  four  most  populous  containing  thirty  times  as 


10     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

many  inhabitants;  and  thus  a  situation  might  arise 
in  which  thirty-six  legislatures,  representing  less  than 
one-half  of  the  population,  would  impose  their  will  on 
the  remaining  twelve  states  representing  the  majority. 

Logically,  if  the  people  are  to  decide  as  to  whether 
they  do  or  do  not  want  prohibition,  and  such  is  the 
pretended  desire  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  a  refer- 
endum should  be  had  to  the  whole  country  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Congress  as  well  as  of  the  state 
legislatures. 

As  it  is  now,  however,  should  the  supposed  pro- 
hibition amendment  to  the  Constitution  be  ratified 
by  three-fourths  of  the  states,  repeal,  no  matter  how 
disastrously  the  law  worked,  would  be  almost  impos- 
sible ;  any  repeal  of  the  Constitution  requiring  a  two- 
thirds  majority  in  both  houses,  as  well  as  the  consent 
of  three-fourths  of  the  state  legislatures. 

"But  any  thirteen  states — and  there  are  more  than 
that  number  within  the  prohibition  party  to-day — 
would  have  the  power,  by  refusing  their  assent,  to 
make  repeal  impossible,  no  matter  how  insistent  and 
sincere  might  be  the  demand  for  it  throughout  the 
other  thirty-five  states.  And  a  governmental  policy 
fraught  with  such  incalculable  consequences,  reach- 
ing into  the  very  depths  of  our  political  and  social 
life,  the  well-spring  of  ceaseless  strife  and  of  corrup- 
tion, should  be  left  to  chance  legislatures  in  the  name 
of  a  public  opinion  they  can  not  truly  voice !  ' ' 1 

Local  prohibition  waves  have  spread  most  rapidly 
through  the  South,  whence  they  have  percolated  along 

i  Alcohol  and  Society,  by  John  Keren. 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PROHIBITION        11 

the  lines  of  least  resistance  to  the  West  and  North- 
west.   For  that  there  has  been  a  reason. 

In  the  South  "the  saloons,  purveyors  of  distilled 
spirits  almost  exclusively,  had  grown  notoriously  law- 
less, drunkenness  was  rampant,  and  behind  all  loomed 
he  specter,  partly  imagined,  partly  real,  of  danger 
from  the  uncontrolled  elements  among  the  negroes. 
...  In  the  space  of  a  few  years,  Oklahoma,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Mississippi 
outlawed  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicants. 
Alabama  later  recanted  her  faith,  but  has  once  more 
turned  to  prohibition."1 

In  a  word,  prohibition,  in  the  southern  states  at 
least,  appears  to  have  been  enacted  for  the  benefit  of 
negroes  and  white  trash ;  but  a  measure  which  would 
benefit  such  would  not  necessarily  benefit  the  vast 
majority  comprising  the  respectable  element  of  so- 
ciety. 

While  I  believe  that  the  basis  upon  which  Universal 
Prohibition  rests  is  a  quicksand,  which,  ultimately, 
will  disappear,  engulfing  with  it  that  hollow  shell 
raised  by  prejudice,  injustice  and  unreason,  some  do 
not  share  that  opinion. 

People  generally  are  fearfully  and  wonderfully  gul- 
lible. They  are  not  far-seeing,  but  can  easily  be 
made  to  see  immediate  effects,  for  which  desired  causes 
are  chosen.  Nor  can  such  "causes"  be  readily  shown 
to  be  not  true  causes,  seeing  that,  in  the  absence  of  a 
specific  cause,  almost  any  cause  for  any  effect  is  pos- 
sible. 

i  Alcohol  and  Society,  by  John  Koren. 


12     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Thus  the  proletariat  are  deceived  by  the  cleverer 
and  better  educated  portion  of  the  community  who 
may  have  more  private  than  public  reasons  for  pro- 
moting certain  legislation. 

Later  we  shall  see  how  many  absurd  and  absolutely 
false  conclusions  are  deduced,  by  the  promoters  of 
prohibition,  from  premises,  which,  while  true,  are 
not  the  whole  truth. 

Briefly  to  give  here  a  specific  instance  of  men- 
dacity masquerading  as  veracity:  We  are  told  that 
when  a  small  quantity  of  ethyl  alcohol  is  injected  into 
the  veins  of  a  guinea-pig,  the  wretched  animal  dies 
in  agony  within  a  short  time.  That  is  true.  The 
next  assertion  of  the  Prohibitionists  is  that  their  cruel 
experiment  proves  alcohol  to  be  a  "virulent  poison." 
That  is  only  half -true. 

The  whole  truth  is:  The  experiment  proves  alco- 
hol to  be  a  poison  only  when  injected  into  the  veins  of 
a  living  animal. 

They  did  not  utter  that  complete  truth,  because 
they  knew,  as  scientists,  that  the  extracts  of  all  the 
animal,  and  even  of  all  the  vegetable,  proteins,  which 
are  contained  in  the  foods  which  all  men  eat,  and 
without  which  no  man  could  live,  are,  when  injected 
into  the  veins  of  small  animals,  still  more  poisonous 
than  is  alcohol. 

There  are  reasons  why  the  extracts  of  proteins  and 
alcohol  act  as  foods,  and  not  as  poisons,  when  taken 
into  the  human  stomach;  and  those  reasons  will  be 
given  in  their  proper  place. 

Suffice  it  to  say,  at  this  time,  that  such  "injection" 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PROHIBITION        13 

experiments  purporting  to  prove  alcohol  a  poison, 
when  imbibed,  prove  nothing  of  the  kind;  and  we 
have  not  heard  as  yet  of  anyone  taking  hypodermics 
of  alcohol,  except  as  a  cure  for  tri-facial  neuralgia. 
The  usual  mode  of  administration  is,  as  we  all  know, 
a  painless  imbibition  via  the  alimentary  canal. 

Elsewhere  in  this  book  full  details  of  the  above 
will  be  given  and  the  whole  truth  incontestably 
shown. 

Most  men  can  not  be  induced  to  cut  their  own 
throats,  but  they  can  be  persuaded  gradually  to  sur- 
render their  liberties. 

What  is  it  that  Congressman  Richmond  Pearson 
Hobson,  who  heroically  submerged  himself,  only  to 
emerge  later  as  a  champion  of  the  less  heroic,  but 
equally  gallant,  art  of  osculation,  and  now  as  the  un- 
dismayed captain  of  the  avid,  or,  should  I  say,  arid, 
forces  of  Prohibition — what  is  it  that  Mr.  Hobson 
and  his  staunch  adherents  want?  Forsooth  nothing 
but  a  constitutional  amendment  to  enable  them  to  im- 
pose their  militaristic  notions  about  alcohol  upon  a 
public  too  purblind  to  see  the  best  for  their  own  wel- 
fare! 

Even  supposing  that  a  half  of  the  100,000,000  per- 
sons in  these  United  States  do  not  wish  to  drink  alco- 
holic beverages;  there  is  no  law,  at  present,  compell- 
ing those  50,000,000  supernormal  persons  to  drink 
what  they  do  not  please,  or,  rather,  what  does  not 
please  them.  They  may,  therefore,  quaff  lemonade, 
sarsaparilla,  coffee,  tea,  and  other  non-intoxicants,  to 
their  hearts ',  or  stomachs',  content. 


14     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

But,  if  the  Prohibitionists  should  succeed  in  tramp- 
ling upon,  and  trammeling,  the  liberties  of  the  re- 
maining 50,000,000  subnormal  persons,  who  do  wish 
to  drink  alcoholic  beverages;  then  these  fifty  millions 
would  be  compelled  by  law  to  drink  either  sickening 
concoctions  (soft  drinks),  which  their  stomachs  per- 
haps could  not  endure,  or  plain  water. 

If  it  be  said  that  pure  water  could  always  be  pro- 
cured, and  that  this  well-known  drink,  if  the  prospec- 
tive drinkers  were  very  thirsty,  would  taste  perfectly 
delicious,  the  answer  would  be  that,  to  expose  the 
fallacy  of  such  a  rash  statement,  it  would  be  sufficient 
to  visit  Coney  Island,  on  the  crest  of  a  hot  wave,  at 
the  height  of  the  season.  Once  there,  tired  and  per- 
spiring, manifest  to  some  brawny  waiter  your  un- 
alterable predilection  for  the  element  that,  in  Noah's 
time,  killed  practically  the  whole  of  humanity,  and  all 
but  a  couple  of  birds,  beasts  and  reptiles — in  a  word, 
ask  for  water.  You  will  not  get  it,  unless  on  the 
brain,  after  you  have  been  thrown  out  on  your  head. 

An  unwritten  law  of  all  free  countries  is,  that 
legislatures  shall  not  forbid  the  manufacture  or  sale 
of  any  substance  for  consumption,  unless  such  sub- 
stance has  been  proved  beyond  cavil  or  question  of 
doubt  to  be  dangerously  and  destructively  injurious. 

Thus  laws  against  the  unrestricted  sale  of  opium, 
morphine,  heroin,  etc.,  are  defensible.  Furthermore, 
laws  against  the  unrestricted  sale  of  the  powerful 
alcoholic  liquors  would  be,  in  a  measure,  defensible, 
seeing  that  the  strong  liquors,  containing  from  50  to 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PROHIBITION        15 

70  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  are  undoubtedly,  in  some  cases, 
destructive  and  habit-forming. 

Yet,  any  law  prohibiting  absolutely  the  manufac- 
ture, importation  and  sale  of  the  light  alcoholic 
drinks,  and  particularly  beer,  which  contains  barely 
four  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  would  be  perfectly  indefen- 
sible for  the  following  reasons:  First,  beer  is  not  a 
strong  stimulant;  second,  it  is  not  destructive;  third, 
it  is  not  habit-forming;  and  fourth,  it  is  neither  ob- 
viously nor  universally  conceded  to  be  injurious,  but 
is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  most  eminent  men,  whole- 
some, tonic  and  strengthening.  There  are  no  "beer 
drunkards. 

Why,  then,  a  senseless  agitation  against  a  univer- 
sally popular  mild  beverage  which,  according  to 
thousands,  does  less  harm — even  if  it  does  no  good — 
than  an  excessive  quantity  of  sweets,  or  than  an  ex- 
cessive amount  of  meat? 

I  hope,  however,  that  those  of  my  readers  who  will 
follow  me  through  this  book  will  agree  that  the  malt 
beverages,  rightly  used,  do  much  good,  not  the  least 
being  the  blunting  of  human  anguish,  anxiety  and 
worry. 


CHAPTER  II 

AFTER    THE   PROHIBITION   OP   ALCOHOL,    WHAT   NEXT? 

THE  injustice  which  National  Prohibition  would  do 
to,  say,  forty  millions  of  individuals,  is  so  obvious 
that  even  mentioning  it  seems  superfluous.  What 
is  not  so  obvious,  but  equally  true,  is  that  the  passage 
of  so  drastic  and  sumptuary  a  law,  in  this  supposedly 
free  country,  would  establish  a  precedent  dangerous 
to  the  remaining  liberties  of  the  people. 

After  all  the  hydra-heads  of  the  Demon  Alcohol  had 
been  struck  off,  and  the  red  hot  iron  of  Herculean 
national  legislation  had  been  applied  to  the  stumps 
to  prevent  their  regrowth,  what  then  would  the  pro- 
fessional reformers  do?  Slink  into  innocuous  desue- 
tude ?  Hardly.  They  would  become  aware  that  man- 
kind was  still  degenerating,  and  would  seek  for  some 
other  Universal  Cause. 

Soon  they  would  discover  that  the  vice  of  smoking 
had  increased,  and,  shrieking,  Eureka,  it  is  tobacco; 
down  with  tobacco ! — they  would  uproot  the  vile  weed, 
and  burn  it  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

All  that  would  be  necessary  to  make  the  highest- 
handed  proceedings  possible,  would  be  a  few  fanatics, 
some  analyses  of  the  poisonous  substances  contained  in 
tobacco,  "efficiency"  tests  to  prove  that  the  weed  was 

16 


WHAT  NEXT?  17 

" slowly  but  surely"  killing  everyone,  graphic  descrip- 
tions of  "inalienable  rights"  to  breathe  pure  air, 
passionate  dissertations  on  the  ' '  disgusting  and  filthy ' ' 
habits  of  chewing  and  smoking,  and  all  capped  with 
statistics  of  the  amount  of  money  annually  dissipated 
into  noxious  fumes; — the  one  important  fact  com- 
pletely lost  sight  of,  being,  that  money  used  to  pro- 
cure pleasure  and  relaxation,  without  doing  any  espe- 
cial harm,  is  well-expended. 

The  next  step  of  the  minds,  not  clouded  by  tobacco 
smoke  at  least,  would  be  to  enlist  the  sympathy  of 
women,  who  are,  mostly,  of  course,  non-smokers. 
Basely  it  would  be  pointed  out  to  them  that  the 
money,  spent  yearly  by  their  husbands  upon  cigars, 
would  far  better  be  expended  in  feminine  capital  and 
mural  decorations,  as  exemplified  in  coquettish  mil- 
linery and  the  latest  gowns.  No  doubt  such  argu- 
ments would  interest  the  fair,  and  arouse  their  en- 
thusiasm. To  the  nucleus  of  an  ebulliently  earnest 
Anti- Smoke  Society,  the  ladies  would  flock,  and,  after 
they  had  obtained  the  franchise,  they  would  threaten 
seasoned  politicians,  and  politicians  in  embryo,  with 
the  loss  of  their  votes,  unless  they  would  promise 
faithfully  to  favor  National  Prohibition  of  tobacco — 
a  kind  of  black-jack,  were  it  not  a  petticoat  persua- 
sion! 

But  a  world  triumphantly  deprived  of  its  chief 
solaces,  alcohol  and  tobacco,  would  not  satisfy  our 
Reformers  and  self-constituted  Brothers'  Keepers. 
"Degeneracy"  would  still  be  with  us — perhaps  more 
of  it.  Probably  coffee  and  tea  drinking  would  be 


18      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

next  attacked ;  then  meat  eating ;  for  it  could  be  read- 
ily shown  that  all  those  substances  contained  poison. 
Finally,  the  remnants  of  a  vegetarian  humanity, 
pursuing  now  a  truly  vegetative  and  non -resisting  ex- 
istence, would,  groaning,  give  up  the  ghost. 


CHAPTER  III 

DO   CITIZENS  NEED  NURSES? 

BUT  a  truce  to  the  lugubriousness  of  the  last  chap- 
ter. That  harrowing  picture  could  never  be.  In  this 
world  of  exhausting  labor,  keen  competition,  and 
nervous  strain,  man  needs  some  sedative;  and,  of  all 
sedatives,  alcohol  and  tobacco  have  been  chosen,  by 
the  majority  of  mankind,  as  being  the  most  comfort- 
ing and  satisfying,  as  well  as  the  least  harmful  and 
dangerous.  To  stop  the  alcohol  and  tobacco  habits 
of  the  entire  population  of  this  country,  would,  there- 
fore, be  practically  impossible.  But,  that  to  curtail 
them  would  be  possible,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  it 
has  already  been  done. 

Figures  show  that,  so  far  from  there  having  been 
an  increase  in  intemperance  in  late  years,  there  has 
been  a  decided  decrease.  At  present,  a  great  deal 
more  of  malt  liquors  (mildly  alcoholic),  than  of  dis- 
tilled liquors  (strongly  alcoholic),  are  being  consumed. 

In  1890,  the  manufacture  of  malt  liquors  furnished 
employment  to  34,800  persons,  and  yielded  a  product 
worth  $182,700,000 ;  while  during  the  same  year,  the 
manufacture  of  distilled  liquors  employed  but  5,343 
persons,  and  yielded  a  product  worth  $104,000,000.* 

i  Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  p.  27. 
19 


20      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Again,  looking  at  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  bev- 
erages generally  for  a  series  of  years,  we  find  a 
marked  and  steady  decline  in  the  amounts  consumed 
of  the  stronger  varieties.  Since  1840  there  has  been 
a  constant  substitution  of  malt  for  distilled  liquors  in 
the  total  consumption;  the  consumption  of  the  latter 
having  fallen  from  2.52  gallons  per  caput  to  1,  while 
the  consumption  of  the  former  has  risen  from  1.36 
to  15.16  per  caput. 

Although  the  foregoing  figures  show  a  considerable 
increase  in  the  total  quantity  consumed  of  the  lighter 
drinks,  yet  the  substitution  of  those  for  the  stronger 
drinks  has  resulted  in  a  diminution  of  the  amount  of 
alcohol  consumed  per  caput.  Moreover,  while  the  con- 
sumption per  caput  of  malt  liquors  has  remained 
nearly  stationary  since  1890,  the  consumption  of  dis- 
tilled liquors  has  fallen  by  nearly  one-third.1 

That  creditable  temperance  record,  however,  has 
not  been  due  to  reformers  so  much  as  to  the  good 
sense  of  the  people  themselves. 

The  behavior  of  certain  reformers  toward  the  pub- 
lic, nowadays,  is  like  that  exhibited  by  overzealous 
nurses  toward  the  healthy  children  entrusted  to  their 
charge,  with  the*  difference  that  the  authority  of  the 
reformer  is  self-delegated.  Excited,  he  runs  back  and 
forth  like  a  hen  about  her  chicks,  when  they  venture 
near  the  water;  neither  the  hen  nor  the  reformer 
realizing  that  the  chick's  or  the  child's  natural  in- 
stinct will  prevent  it  from  destroying  itself. 

As  the  great  labor  unions  in  England  have  become 

i  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  by  John  Koren. 


DO  CITIZENS  NEED  NURSES?  21 

larger  and  wealthier,  says,  in  substance,  a  report  of 
the  Committee  of  Fifty,  investigating  the  liquor  prob- 
lem, they  have  been  steadily  emancipating  themselves 
from  the  public  houses  by  having  their  own  meeting 
places;  and  the  need  of  keeping  sober  during  strikes 
and  lockouts  has  impressed  itself  ever  more  strongly 
upon  them.  They  have  found  it,  too,  to  their  interest 
to  elect  to  their  higher  offices  only  temperate  men; 
while  the  ramifications  of  their  elaborate  system  of 
insurance  give  each  member  a  direct  interest  in  the 
sobriety  of  his  co-workers. 

Workmen  are  human,  and  they  have  more  sense 
than  many  well-meaning  meddlers,  whose  acts  indi- 
cate a  singular  lack  of  faith  in  every  one  but  them- 
selves. 

The  vast  majority  of  these  intelligent  workmen  are 
aware  that  it  pays  to  be  steady  and  to  keep  sober  at 
all  times ;  moreover,  as  they  scarcely  enjoy  contribut- 
ing to  their  respective  organizations  any  part  of  their 
hard-earned  wages  toward  the  support  of  the  idle  and 
dissolute,  they  encourage  in  every  way  possible,  among 
their  number,  general  industry  and  sobriety. 

Among  the  rules  of  the  Iron,  Steel  and  Tin  Work- 
ers, one  is,  that  if  a  man  is  discharged  on  account  of 
drunkenness,  no  steps  shall  be  taken  to  reinstate  him. 
Among  the  Metal  Polishers,  the  Core  Makers,  the  Iron 
Moulders,  the  Retail  Clerks,  and  the  Knights  of  La- 
bor, any  man  belonging  to  any  of  those  organizations 
who  connects  himself  in  any  way  with  the  liquor  traf- 
fic, whether  he  remain  sober  or  not,  is  expelled  from 
the  union. 


22     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

And  the  Iron  Moulders,  the  Blacksmiths,  the  Amal- 
gamated Society  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners,  the  Wood 
Workers,  the  Painters  and  Decorators,  the  Leather 
Workers  on  Horse  Goods,  the  Tobacco  Workers,  the 
Cigar  Makers,  and  the  Retail  Clerks,  go  still  further, 
by  excluding  such  a  member  from  the  benefits  to  which 
he  would  be  entitled  in  case  of  sickness,  accident,  or 
non-employment.  Many  Unions,  also,  fine,  or  other- 
wise punish,  those  who  attend  meetings  in  an  intoxi- 
cated condition. 

As  an  instance  of  how  men  can  be  depended  upon 
to  take  care  of  themselves  without  the  aid  of  a  pater- 
nal government,  I  quote  the  following:  "In  Canada 
the  men  who  are  called  lumberers  live  in  camps  far 
away  from  civilization.  During  the  whole  winter 
they  fell  the  trees,  and  these  are  dragged  along  the 
snow  to  the  nearest  river,  where  they  are  made  up 
into  rafts.  These  men  will  not  have  any  alcohol  near 
them  in  the  winter.  On  one  occasion  a  man  conveyed 
a  cask  of  whiskey  into  one  of  their  camps,  and  the 
first  thing  they  did  was  to  take  an  axe,  and  knock  a 
hole  in  the  cask,  so  that  the  whole  of  the  whiskey 
ran  out.  The  reason  of  this  was,  they  did  not  dare 
to  leave  the  whiskey  there,  for,  if  it  was  there,  they 
felt  quite  sure  they  would  drink  it,  and,  if  they  drank 
it,  they  were  likely  to  die."  1 

Evidently,  the  lumberjacks  were  average  sensible 
men,  who  knew  from  experience,  without  demonstra- 

i  Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body,  by  Sir  Victor  Horsley, 
M.D.,  p.  145.  (Quoted  by  Horsley  from  Sir  T.  Lauder  Brun- 
ton,  in  the  Action  of  Medicine.) 


DO  CITIZENS  NEED  NURSES?  23 

tions  by  the  laboratories,  that,  while  the  ingestion 
of  an  excessive  quantity  of  liquor  would  give  an  im- 
mediate sensation  of  warmth,  that  would  be  succeeded 
by  a  loss  of  heat  (owing  to  radiation  of  heat  from  the 
blood  sent  by  alcohol  to  the  surface  of  the  body),  and 
that  if,  by  chance,  any  of  their  number  should  drink 
until  he  fell  into  a  stupor,  and  should  lie  down  in  that 
cold  region  and  sleep,  he  might  never  awaken. 

So  the  common  lumberjacks  Carrie-Nationed  the 
cask  without  the  moral  impetus  of  a  single  reformer ! 

"Some  time  ago/'  continues  Sir  T.  Lauder  Brun- 
ton,  "Sir  Joseph  Fayrer  was  out  deerstalking  in  the 
north  of  Scotland.  He  offered  his  flask  to  the  keeper. 
The  keeper  said,  'No,  Sir  Joseph,  I  will  not  take  any 
to-day;  it  is  too  cold.'  ' 

Now,  why,  when  the  keeper  knew  there  was  no  law 
against  it,  did  he  not  take  the  nip  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
he  himself  had  the  strength  to  refuse  ? 

The  discovery  that  alcohol  lowered  bodily  tempera- 
ture was  of  considerable  importance,  and  many  care- 
ful investigations  were  made  by  Sir  Benjamin  Ward 
Richardson,  M.  D.,  before  he  laid  the  facts  before  the 
British  Association  in  1866.  Alcohol  is  now  occa- 
sionally used  as  an  antipyretic. 

Still  another  instance  of  the  soundness  of  permit- 
ting large  bodies  of  men  to  govern  themselves,  with- 
out compulsory  law,  and,  incidentally,  an  example  of 
the  importance  of  better  treatment  as  a  factor  in  the 
furtherance  of  sobriety,  are  furnished  by  the  Bur- 
roughs Adding  Machine  Company. 

"That  firm  (employing  several  thousand  men)  vol- 


24     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

untarily  shortened  their  working  day  from  nine  and 
one-half  hours  to  eight  hours.  A  noticeable  decrease 
in  drinking  followed,  and,  what  is  equally  gratifying 
from  the  economists'  stand-point,  there  was  also  a 
slight  average  increase  in  the  output. ' '  * 

Men  drink  less  alcohol,  when  they  require  less ;  that 
is,  when  they  are  not  exhausted  by  hard  work.  Thus, 
practically  considered,  alcohol  seems  to  fill  a  need. 

i  Alcohol — Its  Influence  on  Mind  and  Body,  by  Edwin  F. 
Bowers,  M.D. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   TYRANNY   OF   NATIONAL   PROHIBITION 

IT  would  not  be  democracy;  it  would  not  be  free 
republican  rule;  but  it  would  be  tyranny  for  any 
government  to  arrogate  to  itself  the  right  to  dictate 
to  millions  of  free  men  what  they  should  drink;  and 
if  National  Prohibition  should  ever  be  accomplished, 
which  I,  for  one,  do  not  believe,  it  would  be  the  most 
damnable  and  outrageous  assault  upon  personal  lib- 
erty ever  perpetrated,  and,  so  terribly  would  it  be 
avenged,  that  its  instant  repeal  would  be  demanded 
by  its  own  instigators. 

That  alcohol  in  excess  is  harmful  to  health,  every- 
one knows,  and  nobody  disputes.  But  that  alcohol  is 
harmful  in  moderation,  millions  of  persons,  among 
whom  are  thousands  of  leading  physicians  and  scien- 
tists, do  not  concede,  but,  on  the  contrary,  emphati- 
cally maintain,  that,  in  many  cases,  alcohol  is  of  dis- 
tinct benefit. 

While  alcohol  does  not  agree  with  all,  it  agrees  with 
many;  and,  therefore,  sweepingly  to  forbid  even  the 
light  alcoholic  beverages  to  everyone,  would  be  fla- 
grantly unjust. 

One  great  cause  of  ill-health  is  worry,  and  that  is 
more  wearing  than  work.  If  alcohol  lessens  worry, 

25 


26      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

certainly  a  predisposer  to  disease,  then  alcohol  is  of 
some  use. 

The  general  physiological  effects  of  alcohol  will  be 
discussed  in  another  chapter. 

The  belief  that  the  entire  population  of  the  United 
States  could  be  forced  to  stop  drinking  is  chimerical; 
but  they  could  be  placed  under  such  improved  paying 
and  working  conditions  as  would  make  them  desire  to 
drink  less. 

All  that  fairly  could  be  done  would  be  to  induce 
them  to  see  the  great  harmfulness  of  excessive  indul- 
gence both  to  themselves  and  to  those  dependent  on 
them. 

Once  the  normal  man  understood  that  his  acts  were 
prejudicial  to  his  interests,  he  would  modify,  if  he 
did  not  wholly  suppress,  those  acts. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  INCREASE  IN   DRUG   ADDICTS 

A  GOVERNMENT  which  permits  cruelty  to  many  of 
its  citizens,  in  the  form  of  over  work  and  underpay, 
must  not  deny  them  the  solace  of  after  stimulation, 
or  of  partial  narcotization,  to  procure  rest.  If  the 
government  should  deny  them  that  solace,  it  would 
subject  them  to  the  dangerous  temptation  of  seeking 
substitute  drugs,  a  hundred  times  more  destructive 
than  were  those  to  which  they  had  become  accustomed. 

In  the  prohibition  states  drug  taking  has  become 
common.  In  Maine  drinks  that  look  and  taste  like 
beer,  and  are  very  popular,  are  drugged  with  ether; 
and  there  a  concentrated  concoction  known  as  the 
ether  cocktail,  is  now  the  favorite  ' '  knocker-out. ' ' 

Assistant  District  Attorney  Unger  declared  re- 
cently, at  the  New  York  City  Hall,  before  a  legislative 
committee,  seeking  information  upon  which  to  base 
new  legislation,  that  there  were  200,000  drug  addicts 
in  the  State  of  New  York;  that  this  number  was 
greater  than  it  had  ever  been;  that  it  comprised  a 
large  number  of  children;  and  that  the  evil  was  in- 
creasing daily.  Mr.  Unger  said,  also,  that  the  Tombs 
physicians  alone  had  handled  12,000  cases.  He  sug- 
gested that  it  was  a  mistake  to  make  the  possessor 

27 


28      THE  WHOLE  TKUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

of  drugs  a  criminal,  since  that  prevented  him,  through 
fear,  from  asking  for  treatment. 

Dr.  Ernest  C.  Bishop,  who  had  studied  the  subject 
in  State  institutions,  supplemented  Mr.  linger 's  re- 
marks by  asserting  that  there  were  at  present,  in  the 
Workhouse,  "swarms  of  youngsters  in  their  'teens 
who  are  drug  victims." 

Dr.  Bishop  added  that,  "despite  the  new  laws,  there 
are  more  drugs,  principally  heroin  (a  derivative  of 
morphine),  passing  through  illegitimate  channels  than 
ever  before,  and  that  doctors,  lawyers,  ministers  and 
clerks  out  of  number  were  drug  addicts."  He  urged 
great  care,  however,  in  the  drafting  of  legislation, 
"to  shut  off  these  men  suddenly." 

And  still  more  of  this  horror.  Dr.  Charles  F. 
Stokes,  Medical  Director  of  the  Board  of  Inebriety,  in 
charge  of  the  City  Farm  Colony,  of  Warwick,  for  the 
treatment  of  inebriates  and  drug  victims,  stated,  at 
a  recent  meeting  of  the  City  Club,  that  there  were 
fully  500,000  drug  habitues  in  the  United  States,  pos- 
sibly 1,000,000;  and  that  80  per  cent,  of  them  were 
heroin  "snuffers." 

The  Committee  of  Fifty  found  that  there  had  been 
in  all  the  prohibition  states  of  this  country  ' l  abnormal 
increases  in  the  consumption  of  patent  medicines,  con- 
taining alcohol." 

In  Norwegian  prohibition  districts  they  discovered 
that  ether  and  perfume  drinking  had  become  common, 
and  that  even  hair-oil  was  resorted  to  by  the  desperate. 

In  Germany,  the  following  figures,  which  the  Com- 
mittee presents,  show,  without  need  of  comment,  the 


THE  INCREASE  IN  DRUG  ADDICTS      29 

enormous  increase  in  the  import  of  opium,  since  the 
anti-alcohol  agitation : 

In  1907,  29,200  kg.;  in  1908,  54,200  kg.;  and  in 
1909,  73,400  kg.  Later  figures  are  not  available;  but 
the  steady  increase,  from  1907  to  1909,  is  sufficiently 
significant. 

The  foregoing  statements  are  what  we  should  ex- 
pect would  follow  from  a  partial  suppression  of  alco- 
hol. Men  and  women  worry;  they  have  cares;  they 
are  more  or  less  afflicted  with  disease,  and  they  have 
frequent  bitter  disappointments.  If  alcohol  is  not 
available,  there  are  other  drugs  that  induce  forgetful- 
ness  ;  and  it  is  hardly  surprising  that  men  should  turn 
to  them. 

Thus  Temptation  paves  the  way  to  Perdition. 


CHAPTEE  VI 

NATIONAL   PROHIBITION   UNJUST   TO.  THE  INDIVIDUAL 

So  long  as  the  world  remains  imperfect,  there  will 
be  trouble.  But  have  not  the  authorities  enough  to 
do,  in  suppressing  crimes  and  in  enforcing  necessary 
laws,  without  concerning  themselves  with  private  in- 
dividual interests? 

Every  individual,  under  ordinary  conditions,  has 
the  right  to  live  his  life  as  he  pleases,  provided  he 
does  not  unduly  interfere  with,  or  injure,  his  neigh- 
bor. But  if  the  government  can  tell  him  what  he 
shall  drink,  it  can  assume  further  rights,  as  has  been 
said  before,  and  tell  him  whether  or  not  he  may 
smoke,  what  and  how  much  he  may  eat,  and  even 
what  he  must  wear. 

The  Government  might  also  intrude  itself  into  the 
individual's  private  intellectual  pursuits.  Thus,  if 
he  were  a  student  and  writer,  or  an  artist,  it  might 
decide  that  his  work  was  mediocre,  and  that  he  would 
better  be  engaged  in  some  work  more  useful  and  bene- 
ficial to  himself  and  mankind  generally — might  make 
him  work  a  specified  number  of  hours  daily  in  some 
government  plant,  for  example. 

Really,  no  one  can  think  for  the  intelligent  man 
nearly  so  well  as  he  can  think  for  himself.  The  brain 
of  such  a  man  is  impressionable.  He  learns  by  his 

30 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  31 

experiences  and  his  observations,  and  thus  comes  to 
know  the  mode  of  life  best  suited  to  his  individuality. 
He  knows  the  kinds  of  foods  and  the  kinds  of  drinks, 
which  best  agree  with  him,  just  as  he  knows  the  par- 
ticular profession  best  suited  to  his  mental  capability ; 
and  he  knows  those  purely  personal  things  better  than 
any  other  man,  be  he  king,  president,  governor,  mayor, 
congressman,  senator,  or  reformer,  knows  them. 

Hence,  the  utter  absurdity  of  any  person,  or  per- 
sons, in  authority,  telling  that  normal  experienced 
man  that  he  shall  not  drink  such  and  such  beverages, 
which  he  likes,  which  he  knows,  by  their  repeated 
effects  upon  himself,  do  not  harm  him,  but  which,  as 
he  firmly  believes,  do  him  good.  If  he  is  mistaken, 
he  suffers  the  consequences ;  but  that  is  his  affair. 

I,  myself,  have  found  that  I  can  not  drink  lemon- 
ade, without  some  gastric  distress.  Nor  do  the  so- 
called  soft  drinks,  such  as  soda  water  with  syrups, 
sarsaparilla,  ginger  ale,  etc.,  agree  well  with  me. 
Again,  many  persons,  among  them  myself,  can  not 
drink  sweet  milk,  without  becoming  upset  and  con- 
stipated. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  those  who  find  that, 
of  all  drinks,  new  ale,  or  light  beer,  is,  for  them,  the 
most  agreeable  and  wholesome. 

And  yet,  no  man's  private  right  to  drink  ale  or 
beer,  they  being  occasionally  intoxicating  in  large 
quantity,  extends  to  the  point  that  he  may  so  stupefy 
himself,  by  means  of  either,  that  he  makes  of  himself 
a  common  nuisance,  and  thus  brings  harm  upon  him- 
self, his  family,  and  his  friends. 


32      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Habitual  drunkenness  is  a  grave  evil,  and,  as  such, 
should  be  fought;  not,  however,  with  exaggerated, 
false  and  misleading  statements,  but  by  drastic  appli- 
cations of  the  laws  we  already  have  covering  such 
cases.  All  confirmed  inebriates,  being  more  or  less 
deficient  and  degenerate,  should  be  at  least  restrained, 
if  they  can  not  be  cured. 

It  is  axiomatic  that  we  have  the  right  to  interfere 
with  him  only  who  interferes  with  us.  The  thief,  the 
murderer,  the  confirmed  alcoholic,  the  drunk  and  dis- 
orderly roustabout,  should  be  made  war  upon,  re- 
strained and  constrained;  but  we  have  no  right,  by 
any  law  of  God  or  man,  to  shackle  the  liberty  of  the 
unoffending  citizen,  who  drinks  moderately  for  socia- 
bility, or  for  his  health's  sake,  and,  at  times,  to  relax 
the  never  ceasing  strain  to  live;  or  who  chooses  to 
smoke  occasionally  to  soothe  nerves  irritated  by  the 
stress  of  trials  impossible  to  avoid. 

In  so  far  as  the  laboring  classes  are  concerned,  if 
you  take  away  the  laborer's  glass  of  beer,  you  deprive 
him  of  food.  Not  that  the  beer,  though  nourishing,  is 
sufficient  food  for  him.  It  is  not.  But  the  working 
man  goes  into  a  decent  saloon,  and  with  his  glass  of 
beer,  costing  only  five  cents,  he  may  have  crackers 
and  good  cheese,  bologna  sausage  with  bread,  and, 
not  infrequently,  hot  soup,  or  a  nutritious  beef 
stew;  all  those  excellent  foods  being  free  for  the 
taking. 

Moreover,  any  unprejudiced  observer  will  affirm 
that  the  average  workman  is  a  normal  individual  who 
rarely  drinks  to  excess.  He  will  drink  perhaps  two 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  33 

glasses  of  beer,  and  those,  with  the  generous  "free 
lunch"  to  which  he  usually  helps  himself,  constitute 
a  satisfying,  cheap  and  nourishing  meal. 

Would  Prohibitionists,  then,  to  satisfy  their  pe- 
culiar obsession,  rob  that  vast  army  of  normal  men, 
who  outnumber  hugely  the  abnormal,  that  is  to  say, 
the  occasional  drunken  loafers,  of  their  daily  food 
and  refreshment?  It  seems  that  they  would. 

Free  American  citizens  have  believed  heretofore 
that  they  knew  what  was  good  for  them.  That  some 
do  not;  that  a  great  many  do  not,  is  conceded.  Yet 
when  individuals  transgress,  whether  by  inebriety,  or 
by  more  serious  offences,  those  units  only,  and  not 
the  masses,  should  be  punished. 

Any  mature  man,  who  drinks  habitually  to  excess, 
is  abnormal;  and,  often,  he  is  more  troublesome  and 
embarrassing  to  the  authorities  than  are  more  degen- 
erate offenders. 

Occasionally  a  confirmed  alcoholic  can  be  cured; 
more  often,  he  can  not.  In  any  event,  pending  his 
possible  reformation,  he  should  be  treated  like  any 
other  defective ;  humanely  and  charitably,  in  his  own 
home,  if  harmless ;  firmly  and  correctively,  in  an  insti- 
tution, or  on  a  farm,  if  dangerous. 

The  great  statistical  discovery  of  the  Prohibition- 
ists, that  the  children  of  drunkards  are  more  likely 
to  be  defective  than  are  the  children  of  abstainers, 
is  merely  their  whimsical  way  of  saying  that  children 
born  to  the  abnormal  are  more  frequently  abnormal 
than  are  children  born  to  the  normal. 

Of  course!     Certainly!!     The  surprising  part,  be- 


34     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

ing  not  the  statement  of  the  fact,  but  the  fact  of  the 
statement. 

Alcohol  does  not  ruin  men — men  disgrace  alcohol. 
Alcohol  does  not  produce  deficiency ;  but  original  defi- 
ciency seizes  upon  alcohol,  and  abuses,  instead  of  uses, 
it,  thereby  perhaps  increasing  the  original  deficiency. 

The  abuse  of  alcohol  is,  ipso  facto,  a  manifestation 
of  deficiency. 

The  habitual  drunkard  could  be  saved,  only  if  his 
defectiveness  could  be  modified.  But  simply  dam- 
ming his  desires  in  the  drink  channel  would  not  dry 
up  the  source  emanating  from  the  defective  brain. 
If  that  were  done,  however,  the  defective  would  seek 
other  outlets  for  self-gratification.  Once  the  manu- 
facture, sale  and  importation  of  all  alcoholic  bever- 
ages should  be  prohibited,  and  it  would  be  found  nec- 
essary to  put  likewise  under  the  Federal  ban  all  nar- 
cotic drugs  and  all  medicines  containing  the  least 
alcohol,  including  those  required  for  the  therapeutic 
practice  of  medicine. 

Why?  We  answered  that  question  when  we  told 
of  the  extraordinary  spread  of  patent-medicine  drink- 
ing, and  of  drug  addiction  in  prohibition  and  other 
states,  despite  the  law  and  informing,  but  uninformed 
reformers. 

Extreme  propaganda  of  any  kind  is  unwise ;  but  to 
shut  off  absolutely  from  human  individual  consump- 
tion every  kind  of  alcoholic  beverage,  including  ale, 
beer,  and  stout,  considered  by  physicians  of  the  high- 
est standing  to  be  the  greatest  lactogogues  for  nurs- 
ing mothers  known,  would  be  sheer  insanity. 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  35 

A  Latin  proverb,  constantly  proved  true  by  human 
experience,  says :  Medio  tutissimus  ibis.1 

Reformers  and  other  extremists,  who  have  no  faith 
in  Nature,  should  learn  that  proverb,  and  apply  its 
teaching. 

To  call  professional  Prohibitionists,  Abstainers, 
would  be  to  compliment  them  too  highly.  Abstainers 
mind  their  own  business.  An  abstainer  does  not 
drink,  because  he  does  not  wish  to.  That  is  his  affair. 
A  temperate  man  drinks  moderately,  because  he  does 
wish  to.  That  is  his  affair.  No  more  reason  is  there 
for  an  abstainer  to  forbid  a  moderate  drinker  to 
drink,  than  for  a  drinker  to  insist  that  an  abstainer 
drink  also.  Each  has  the  equal  right  to  do,  within 
reason,  what  he  pleases.  For,  there  are  moderate 
drinkers,  who  believe  as  firmly  in  the  healthfulness  of 
their  habit,  as  do  the  abstainers  in  the  healthfulness 
of  their  abstinence. 

If  "Reformers'7  would  use  a  tithe  of  their  extraor- 
dinary energy  to  advance  their  own  interest,  and  let 
ordinary  individuals  alone,  the  world  would  be  hap- 
pier ;  and  a  happier  world  would  be  healthier. 

A  world  without  alcohol  and  tobacco — for,  tobacco 
would  go  next — would  mean  that  instead  of,  as  now, 
a  few  thousand  thin-armed,  narrow-chested,  pale- 
faced,  non-smokers,  teetotalers  and  dyspeptic  vege- 
tarians, afraid  to  take  a  deep  breath  lest  they  be 
wafted  to  Heaven,  there  would  be  millions  such. 

Besides,  I  ask  the  reader,  would  you  be  amiable 
and  nice  if,  when  you  came  home  dog-tired,  you  could 

i  In  the  middle  course  lies  safety. 


36     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

find  no  claret,  beer  or  even  a  light  wine  to  cheer  and 
comfort  you?  And  if,  after  a  drinkless  meal,  you 
had  snuggled  yourself  into  an  easy  chair,  your  atten- 
tive spouse  could  not  fetch  you  a  cigar,  or  light  your 
pipe — that  form  of  poisoning  depending  upon  the 
robustness  of  your  income — would  you,  or  could  you 
be  happy  thus? 

A  few  lions  roaring  loudly  will  drown  the  feebler 
grunts  of  the  thousands  of  other  lions,  quite  as  power- 
ful, but  not  nearly  so  noisy.  The  loud  lions,  how- 
ever, inevitably  occupy  the  center  of  the  stage. 

We  read  a  great  deal  nowadays  about  the  ravages 
of  alcohol  in  books,  so-called,  but  which  are  really 
only  compilations  of  the  "knocks"  which  have  been 
conscientiously  and  constantly  administered  to  our 
most  popular  beverage  for  the  past  hundred  years. 
But  that  which  we  rarely  hear  is  what  we  have  termed 
the  whole  truth ;  for  that,  to  the  tyrannical  sects  fast 
overriding  this  country,  would  be  too  embarrassing. 

Yet  soon,  the  more  celebrated  physicians  and  scien- 
tists, hitherto  silent,  will  speak  with  no  uncertain 
voice,  but  temperately,  authoritatively,  and  convinc- 
ingly; their  language  having  the  more  weight,  when 
the  great  public  contrasts  it  with  the  intemperate  and 
absurd  claims  made  by  the  Anti-Alcoholists. 

They  will  say,  among  other  things,  that  alcohol  is, 
at  times,  the  most  valuable  stimulant  known  to  medi- 
cine; and  that,  when  intelligently  used,  it  is  often 
a  prime  necessity  for  maintaining  the  health  and  hap- 
piness of  the  major  part  of  normal  mankind. 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  37 

Recollect,  too,  that  the  sane  scientists,  though  not 
noisy,  greatly  outnumber  the  blatant  pseudo-scientists 
connected  with  the  "great"  Anti- Alcohol  Movement. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  DANGER   OF   HABITUAL  LIQUOR   DRINKING 

I  WOULD  now  state  plainly  that  I  am  unalterably 
opposed  to  habitual  liquor  drinking,  unless  in  strict 
moderation.  In  beer  there  is  only  three  or  four  per 
cent,  of  alcohol;  in  ale,  from  five  to  eight  per  cent.; 
in  claret  and  champagne,  about  ten  per  cent. ;  whereas 
in  gin,  rum,  whiskey,  brandy,  absinthe  and  vodka,  the 
habit-forming  drinks  par  excellence,  there  are,  in  the 
order  named,  about  thirty,  fifty,  fifty-five,  fifty,  sixty, 
and  sixty-five  per  cent. 

Now,  considering  those  percentages  comparatively, 
we  readily  see  the  far  greater  danger  of  contracting 
chronic  alcoholism  from  the  stronger,  than  from  the 
much  milder  drinks,  such  as  beer. 

In  all  my  experience  I  can  affirm  that  I  have  never 
seen  an  habitual  drunkard,  or  even  a  steady  "tip- 
pler," who  did  not  indulge  mostly  in  strong  drink, 
usually  whiskey.  I  have  heard  of  beer,  ale  and 
"light"  wine  drunkards,  but  I  have  never  seen  any 
such,  and  I  do  not  believe  they  exist.  Some  irreclaim- 
able "sots"  assert  that  they  drink  "only  beer,"  but 
careful  watching  will  prove  that  they  do  not  tell  the 
truth. 

To  accustom  one's  self  to  repeated  powerful  stimu- 

38 


HABITUAL  LIQUOR  DRINKING  39 

lations  of  any  strongly  alcoholic  liquor  is  suicidal; 
for,  after  a  time,  the  healthy  organism,  through  grad- 
ual adaptation,  learns  to  lean,  and  to  depend  upon, 
those  stimulations.  The  confirmed  whiskey  drinker, 
for  example,  feels  "  shaky  "  in  the  morning  when  he 
gets  up;  his  hands  tremble  and  can  be  steadied  only 
by  his  customary  potion. 

Not  so,  however,  is  it  with  the  ale  or  beer  drinker ; 
the  trifling  amount  of  alcohol  in  the  beer — three  per 
cent.,  as  contrasted  with  whiskey's  fifty-five  per  cent. 
— being  just  sufficient  to  stimulate  him  pleasantly, 
lighten  his  cares,  lessen  his  worries,  sharpen  his  appe- 
tite, and  aid  his  digestion. 

Of  course,  the  remarks  relative  to  whiskey  drinking 
apply  to  those  only  who  drink  whiskey  habitually  to 
excess.  Rightly  used,  whiskey  is  a  good  tonic,  and, 
often  an  excellent  medicine.  But  one  can  not  drink 
whiskey  as  one  drinks  beer.  Whiskey,  owing  to  its 
high  alcoholic  content,  is  dangerous,  and  may  form  a 
habit;  beer  never  does. 

I  believe  I  am  not  biased,  and  I  wish  it  to  be  clearly 
understood  that,  while  I  favor  moderate  drinking  as 
promoting  a  healthful  and  happy  life,  I  am  opposed 
to  excess,  and  particularly  to  an  excessive  indulgence 
in  liquor. 

The  case  of  Italy  shows  how  strong  drink  will  "get" 
a  nation  which  had  been  temperate.  So  long  as  the 
Italians  remained  a  wine-drinking  people  they  were 
reputed  to  be  among  the  most  temperate  in  Europe, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  figures  showing 
their  annual  consumption  of  wines  were  high;  and 


40     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

neither  in  Spain  nor  in  Portugal  had  the  habitual 
use  of  natural  wines  produced  alcoholism  with  its 
brood  of  evils.  But,  when  returning  emigrants  from 
the  United  States  and  the  Argentine  introduced  a  few 
years  ago  the  whiskey  habit  into  those  afore-named 
countries,  their  governments  were  compelled  to  enact 
laws  to  curb  the  fast-growing  traffic  in  spirits.  In 
Italy,  in  1913,  a  law  was  adopted,  becoming  effective 
on  January  1,  1915,  providing,  among  other  things, 
that  no  drinks  containing  more  than  twenty-one  per 
cent,  of  alcohol  may  be  sold  without  a  special  license, 
and  their  sale  on  Sundays,  holidays  and  the  days  pre- 
ceding election,  was  absolutely  forbidden.  No  restric- 
tions, however,  were  applied  to  the  lighter  drinks. 

Morphine  is,  as  we  all  know,  a  powerful  narcotic; 
tobacco  is  also  a  narcotic,  but  the  latter,  being  ex- 
tremely mild  in  its  action,  is  comparatively  harmless, 
is  comforting  and  soothing,  and  anything  "soothing," 
in  our  constantly  ruffled  existence,  is  a  not  inconsid- 
erable promoter  of  health. 

There  is  everything  in  degree.  Because  alcohol,  in 
large  quantity,  is  poisonous,  is  no  proof  that,  in  small 
quantity,  it  is  not  beneficial;  for  we  know  that  all 
the  foods  are  poisons,  in  immoderate  quantities. 

It  is  a  moot  question,  just  now,  in  the  minds  of  the 
brightest  scientists,  whether  excessive  meat-eating  is 
not  more  prejudicial  to  health  and  long  life,  than  is 
even  rather  heavy  drinking. 

We  shall  have  more  to  say  about  the  poisons  con- 
tained in  foods  later  on. 

For  the  sake  of  completeness,  we  must  say  a  word 


HABITUAL  LIQUOR  DRINKING  41 

about  the  dipsomaniac.  He  differs  from  the  tippler, 
in  that  he  imbibes  enormous  amounts  of  alcohol  pe- 
riodically, and  not  comparatively  small  amounts  daily. 
The  dipsomaniac's  " sprees "  may  end,  after  a  time, 
either  in  alcoholic  insanity,  or  in  delirium  tremens. 
The  periodical  cravings  of  the  dipsomaniac  are  said 
to  be  irresistible. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   WEBB-KENYON   ACT   AND   ITS  PROBABLE 
CONSEQUENCES 

RECENTLY  an  important  decision  was  rendered  by 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  which  the  New 
York  World  commented  upon,  editorially,  as  putting 
"a  double  set  of  teeth  into  the  prohibition  laws  of  all 
the  'dry'  States." 

The  decision  affirmed  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Webb-Kenyon  act,  designed  to  prevent  the  importa- 
tion of  any  alcoholic  beverage  into  any  prohibition 
state  that  specifically  forbade  such  importation. 

As  a  consequence,  dry  states  may,  hereafter,  re- 
main really  dry;  all  inhabitants  of  such  states  being 
now  forbidden  by  Federal,  as  well  as  by  State,  law, 
to  obtain  alcoholic  liquors. 

Previous  to  the  above  decision,  the  Interstate  laws 
over-rode  the  state  laws,  by  permitting  any  one  living 
in  a  prohibition  state  to  obtain  all  the  alcoholic  liquor 
he  wished,  by  importing  it  directly  from  a  "wet" 
state,  whether  the  dry  state  forbade  such  importa- 
tion or  not. 

Drinking,  therefore,  instead  of  being  decreased  in 
the  so-called  dry  states,  was,  in  many  cases,  actually 

42 


THE  WEBB-KENYON  ACT  43 

increased,  owing  to  certain  of  their  citizens  importing 
great  quantities  of  liquors,  probably  to  be  prepared 
for  "a  rainy  day." 

Nor  was  such  an  untoward  result  surprising,  seeing 
that  most  men  are  likely  to  drink  more  from  a  super- 
abundant supply  at  hand,  than  they  would  had  they 
to  go  out  to  get  it. 

Now  that  none  of  the  citizens  of  the  "fortunate" 
dry  states  will  be  able  longer  to  circumvent  their  own 
legislation,  it  will  be  interesting  to  observe  the  con- 
sequences of  drastic  State  Prohibition.  Will  some, 
in  those  henceforth  arid  .states,  become  desperate  and 
resort  to  dangerous  and  destructive  drugs,  until  a 
popular  clamor  arises  for  the  restoration  of  alcohol; 
or  will  all  quietly  acquiesce  and  continue  to  lead  sober, 
righteous  and  godly  lives? 

Doubtless  one  effect  will  be  to  unclasp  the  hands  of 
hypocrites,  and  bring  their  eyes  back  to  earth ;  for,  no 
longer  able  to  reform  their  fellow  men,  without  at  the 
same  time  reforming  themselves,  they  will  believe  that 
a  little  liquor  is  not  so  very  harmful  to  their  brothers, 
after  all.  Indeed,  it  would  not  be  surprising  to  see  a 
"dry"  storm  that  might  end  in  drenching  most  of  the 
country  again. 

Although  the  aforementioned  momentous  decision 
of  our  highest  court  was  received  with  joyful  acclama- 
tions by  Prohibitionists  far  and  wide,  it  may  prove  a 
boomerang,  as  there  is  no  more  effective  way  of  de- 
stroying a  bad  law  than  actually  to  enforce  it. 

Moreover,  when  the  question  of  National  Prohibi- 
tion again  presents  itself  before  Congress,  that  august 


44     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

body  may  decline  to  consider  it,  on  the  ground  that 
all  the  States  having  now  plenary  power  to  deal  with 
their  own  liquor  problems,  there  exists  no  need  for 
further  Federal  interference. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WOULD  PRIVATE  DISTILLATION   FOLLOW  NATIONAL 
PROHIBITION  ? 

ONE  untoward  result,  more  disastrous  and  far-reach- 
ing than  any  which  has  followed  State  Prohibition, 
might  follow  a  country-wide  prohibition,  I  refer  now 
neither  to  an  increase  in  drug  addicts,  nor  to  impor- 
tations of  alcohol  sub  rosa;  I  refer  to  the  danger  that 
millions  of  individuals,  continuing  to  crave  alcohol, 
would  learn  how  to  manufacture  their  own  drinks — a 
private  industry,  which  all  the  governments  in  the 
world  would  be  powerless  to  suppress. 

All  will  grant  that  a  higher  power  than  a  State 
or  a  Federal  law  is  required  to  change  human  nature ; 
and  that  if  men  want  alcohol,  and  can  not  get  it,  they 
will  make  it. 

How  could  they  make  it?  Easily;  but  most  easily 
they  could  make  a  poisonous,  distilled,  fusel-oil  con- 
coction. All  the  "  machinery "  required  for  a  com- 
plete domestic  distillery  would  be  a  kitchen  stove — 
with  a  good  fire  in  it — a  tin  tube,  a  bucket  of  water,  a 
tea-kettle,  any  fermented  fruit  or  grain,  and  a  can,  at 
the  end  of  the  tube,  to  catch  the  concentrated  distil- 
lation. 

Look  at  the  record  of  Sweden  when  the  household 

45 


46      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

jnanufacture  of  spirits  was  rife.  The  consumption  of 
spirits  rose  to  extraordinary  proportions  and  with 
terrible  effects.  ''The  very  marrow  of  the  nation 
was  sapped;  moral  and  physical  degradation  were 
everywhere,  and  all  those  grim  legions  of  evils  that 
ever  range  themselves  under  the  banner  of  intemper- 
ance took  possession  of  the  land."  It  was  officially 
recorded  that  the  amount  of  drunkenness  at  that  time 
was  almost  unparalleled;  and  one  chronicler  added: 
' '  The  like  of  which  history  scarcely  records. ' ' 

Now,  if  such  was  the  case  in  Sweden,  the  amount  of 
debauchery  that  would  ensue  in  such  an  immense 
country  as  this,  were  cheap  liquors  manufactured  in 
but  one  home  in  every  fifty,  would  be  inconceivably 
horrible. 

Children  would,  in  all  probability,  drink  as  freely 
of  the  abominable  stuff  as  would  adults;  and,  as  a 
consequence,  their  stunted  bodies  and  blighted  brains 
would  present  a  problem  to  our  government  infinitely 
more  difficult  of  solution  than  the  comparatively 
simple  present-day  problem  of  occasional  adult 
drunkenness,  or  the  still  rarer  one  of  chronic  inebriety. 

If  any  one  believe  that  here  such  a  situation  would 
not  be  tolerated,  the  answer  would  be  that  what  many 
millions  of  men  want,  they  will  get  one  way  or  an- 
other. Besides,  the  magnitude,  not  to  say  the  impos- 
sibility, of  the  task  of  preventing  by  law  the  manu- 
facture of  any  distilled  concoction,  in  all  the  private 
homes,  covering  the  entire  United  States,  is  so  self- 
evident  as  to  require  only  mention. 


PRIVATE  DISTILLATION  47 

Naturally,  under  such  conditions,  drinking  would 
increase  to  an  extent  never  before  known,  as  home 
manufacture  of  alcoholic  liquors  would  not  only 
greatly  augment  the  supply,  but  would  also  much 
lessen  the  cost. 

The  temptation  to  drink  to  excess  would,  conse- 
quently, be  vastly  increased;  and,  besides,  ales  and 
beers  being  more  difficult  to  make  than  the  distilled 
liquors,  the  latter  drinks,  containing  probably  sixty 
or  seventy  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  would  be  preferred  to 
the  former. 

The  gravity  of  a  general  sudden  change  from  the 
lighter  to  the  stronger  drinks  can  be  partially  grasped 
when  we  consider  that  only  the  stronger  drinks  are 
the  habit-forming  ones. 

As  has  been  mentioned  before,  the  effects  of  re- 
peated doses  of  whiskey  are  very  different  from  the 
effects  of  a  few  glasses  of  beer.  Indeed,  while  the  lat- 
ter wholesome  beverage,  when  used  moderately  as  an 
adjuvant  to  vigorous  muscular  exercise,  may  make  a 
man  out  of  a  weakling,  the  former  pernicious  habit 
will,  in  time,  sap  the  strength  and  stamina  of  the 
strongest. 

Invariably,  the  chronic  hopeless  drunkard,  the  poor 
physical  derelict,  the  favorite  frightful  example  to 
careless  youth,  is  a  whiskey,  brandy,  absinthe,  or  cock- 
tail drinker. 

I  repeat  that  never  does  beer,  ale,  or  any  of  the 
lighter  wines,  make  a  drunkard.  When  drinkers  of 
the  lighter  beverages  go  ''down  and  out,"  as  some- 


48      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

times  happens,  it  is  because  they  have  "  switched "  to 
the  always  dangerous  spirits ; — the  fault  in  those  cases 
being  in  the  brain  which  can  not  remain  satisfied  with 
a  normal  sufficiency. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  NEED  OF   STRICT  ENFORCEMENT  OF   EXISTING 
LIQUOR   LAWS 

NOT  more  laws,  but  a  stricter  enforcement  of  exist- 
ing laws,  would  lighten  the  liquor  evil  immensely. 
There  are  now  many  towns  and  villages  scattered 
throughout  the  country,  which  are  not  dry,  but  where, 
owing  to  strict  enforcement  of  the  liquor  laws,  drunk- 
enness is  at  least  not  in  evidence. 

The  Committee  of  Fifty  (Economic  Aspects  of  the 
Liquor  Problem),  make  some  very  interesting  observa- 
tions concerning  the  habits  of  the  populations  living 
in  the  Stock  Yards  Districts  of  Chicago.  They  state : 
*  *  Our  very  competent  investigator  describes  the  Stock 
Yards  District  of  Chicago  in  the  following  words : 

"  Probably  80  per  cent,  of  the  families  registered 
are  dependent  in  some  way  upon  the  United  Stock 
Yards  and  affiliated  packing-houses.  They  are  prac- 
tically all  of  resident  families.  Very  few  homeless 
men  ever  apply  [for  charity]  at  the  office." 

The  population  is  mixed  and  the  death-rate  is  high ; 
but  the  latter  is  owing  to  poor  sanitation,  and  to  a 
constant  cloud  of  smoke  hanging  over  the  neighbor- 
hood, which  irritates  the  throat  and  lungs. 

49 


50     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

"The  wage  system  at  the  Yards  is  such  as  to 
demoralize  character.  All  pay  is  by  the  hour,  and  all 
the  plants  have  a  capacity  far  beyond  their  needs,  so 
that  it  is  seldom  necessary  to  keep  stock  any  length 
of  time.  Hence  work  is  extremely  irregular,  and 
almost  always  less  than  full  time.  Many  families  earn 
less  than  six  dollars  a  week  the  year  round.  .  .  . 
Again,  many  firms  pay  in  checks,  which  can  be  cashed, 
ordinarily,  only  in  saloons.  Every  entrance  to  the 
Yard  is  surrounded  by  saloons,  and  it  is  customary  for 
the  men  to  come  out  and  sit  around  the  saloons  on 
benches,  provided  for  the  purpose,  and  eat  their  din- 
ners. In  the  winter  the  saloons  provide  rooms  with 
benches  and  tables,  where  the  lunches  may  be  eaten. 
Hence  the  pail  of  beer  is  an  almost  invariable  accom- 
paniment of  the  meal. 

"Taking  the  District  as  a  whole,  I  should  not  call 
it  by  any  means  an  intemperate  one.  Drunken  men 
are  very  seldom  seen,  and  a  very  large  percentage  of 
the  drinking  is  from  'growlers.'  (Italics  mine.) 
There  are  few  low  grade  dance  halls — not  more  than 
four  or  five  in  the  whole  neighborhood — only  one  or 
two  gambling  dens,  practically  no  houses  of  ill-fame, 
and  no  lodging  houses,  or  like  disreputable  resorts. 
The  entire  territory,  included  in  the  above  description, 
comprises  about  five  square  miles,  with  about  150,000 
inhabitants." 

In  other  places  mentioned  in  the  report,  intemper- 
ance was  more  rampant,  where  employment  was  ir- 
regular, and  saloons  were  many;  but  this  was  shown 
to  be  due  to  a  lax  enforcement  of  the  liquor  laws,  in 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  LIQUOR  LAWS       51 

regard  to  closing  hours,  and  the  sale  of  liquor  to 
minors. 

In  still  other  places,  showing  a  more  than  average 
amount  of  intemperance,  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  being  one, 
it  was  learned  that  the  Associated  Charities  of  Paw- 
tucket  dispersed  alms  directly  to  the  needy  from  its 
own  funds. 

Naturally  such  unthinking  philanthropy  proved  sin- 
gularly alluring  to  the  unworthy  poor;  so,  to  Paw- 
tucket  and  its  adjoining  town,  Little  Falls,  shuffled 
hundreds  of  the  indolent — beggars,  tramps  and  topers. 

The  investigations  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty  of  the 
comparative  incidence  of  inebriety  in  the  large  cities, 
disclosed  the  fact  that  foreigners  were  more  given  to 
intemperance  than  were  the  natives.  Hence,  the  pro- 
posed legislation  to  keep  all  alcoholic  drinks  away  from 
every  one,  would  especially  affect  foreigners — infor- 
mation that  should  please  our  altruistic  reformers. 


CHAPTER  XI 

NATIONAL   DECEIT   AFTER  NATIONAL  PROHIBITION? 

FINALLY,  after  National  Prohibition,  think  of  the 
millions  of  normal  men  and  women  who  would  cruelly 
miss  the  cup  that  soothed  their  irritations,  comforted 
their  sorrows,  and  lightened  their  misfortunes;  and 
many  would  feel  the  absence  of  their  panacea  to  be 
prejudicial  to  their  health.  Think  you  that  a  demand 
so  widespread  would  not  be  supplied? 

Suppose  that  even  a  majority  of  all  adult  citizens 
of  these  United  States  should  vote  for  forced  universal 
abstinence,  there  would  yet  remain  a  huge  minority 
that  had  voted  passionately  against  it. 

Now  what  would  this  minority,  consisting  of  many 
millions,  do?  Probably  before  resorting  to  substitute 
drugs,  and  before  efforts  were  made  privately  to  manu- 
facture liquor,  there  would  ensue  a  general  civic  de- 
ceit, which  would  attain  colossal  proportions,  and 
which  would  eventuate,  were  it  only  partially  success- 
ful, in  such  an  universal  contempt  of  law,  as  to  consti- 
tute near-anarchy. 

Moonshiners,  boot-leggers,  and  panderers  of  all 
kinds  to  the  nearly  ubiquitous  demand  for  alcohol 
would  arise  in  all  parts  of  this  immense  country. 
While  the  government  might  suppress  some,  a  great 
number  would  remain  which  would  not  be  reached. 

Let  us  review  briefly  the  influence  the  steady  ac- 
52 


NATIONAL  DECEIT  53 

quisition  of  "dry"  territory  by  the  prohibitionists, 
from  1896  to  1906,  had  upon  the  drinking  habits  of 
the  people  of  this  country.  A  decrease  in  the  con- 
sumption of  spirits  set  in  about  1860,  and  continued 
steadily  until  1896.  "  After  that  a  continuous  rise 
took  place,  which  by  1906  about  doubled  the  visible 
consumption  of  spirits.  This  was  not  a  fortuitous 
happening,  but  coincided  with  the  large  acquisition 
of  dry  territory  between  1896  and  1906.  The  demand 
for  intoxicants  showed  no  signs  of  diminishing  in  con- 
sequence, but  it  could  not  be  supplied  by  malt  bev- 
erages [comparatively  harmless] ,  which  are  not  manu- 
factured within  dry  territory  (there  are  no  moonshine 
breweries),  and  which  are  too  bulky  as  a  rule  to  be 
welcomed  by  the  illicit  trade.  The  rise  in  the  con- 
sumption of  spirits  [the  habit-forming  drinks]  since 
1896  is  thus  one  of  the  results  of  local  and  state  pro- 
hibition." There  has  also  been  an  "  immense  growth 
of  illicit  distillation  which  the  Federal  government 
seems  unable  to  check,  and  which,  according  to  official 
testimony,  has  been  a  concomitant  to  the  enactment 
of  prohibition  in  so  large  a  portion  of  the  South. ' ' 1 

And  what  resulted  in  Russia,  when  the  Czar  sup- 
pressed the  manufacture  of  vodka,  shortly  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  Great  War  ?  At  first  there  was  some 
ardor  for  the  unaccustomed  virtue  of  abstinence. 
And  then — "What  the  government  denied  the  people, 
it  soon  began  to  supply  by  illicit  means.  According 
to  the  reports  of  the  Minister  of  Finance,  during  the 
six  months  following  the  prohibitive  measures,  revenue 

i  Alcohol  and  Society,  by  John  Koren. 


54     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

officers  discovered  1,825  secret  distilleries  [think  of 
how  many  they  did  not  discover!]  manufacturing  a 
special  brand  of  whiskey  known  as  Jcumuska;  160  dis- 
tilleries fitted  out  with  the  most  modern  machinery 
for  making  vodka;  92  distilleries  especially  designed 
for  filtering  lacquer  and  varnish;  and  60  distilleries 
engaged  in  filtering  denatured  alcohol. ' ' 1 

"So  insistent  has  been  the  demand  for  alcohol  that 
substitutes  in  the  form  of  denatured  alcohol,  eau  de 
cologne,  politura,  and  the  like  have  been  consumed  in 
large  quantities,  despite  their  dangerous  effects. 
From  Kiev,  Riga,  Tambou,  Penza,  Simbirsk,  Vilna, 
Nijny,  Novgorod,  Charkov  Kursk,  Moscow,  Petrograd, 
and  innumerable  other  places  come  reports  of  deaths 
and  poisonings  from  these  liquids.  Many  persons' 
sight  has  been  impaired  by  drinking  denatured  and 
wood  alcohol,  varnish,  and  so  forth.  Dr.  Novoselski, 
writing  in  the  Ruski  Vratch  (Petrograd),  cites  the  of- 
ficial returns  of  deaths  from  delirium  tremens  and 
remarks:  'Before  prohibition  the  mortality  figures 
varied  and  changed  without  definite  regularity;  after 
prohibition  they  show  a  regular  and  constant  increase. 
As  prohibition  regulations  became  stricter  and  at  last 
complete,  the  mortality  from  alcoholism  increased!' 
He  argues  from  the  mortality  statistics  that  substitutes 
for  vodka  'are  used  not  only  by  confirmed  drunkards, 
but  generally  by  those  classes  who  before  prohibition 
used  to  drink  moderately. '  The  recent  victims  of  alco- 
holism in  Petrograd  were  'persons  of  all  ages  and  all 
occupations ! ' 

iRyetch,  Petrograd. 


NATIONAL  DECEIT  55 

1 1  Such  is  the  saddening  answer  to  the  well-intended 
prohibition  of  vodka,  for  which  no  substitute  was  of- 
fered. .  .  .  There  also  come  reports  that  the  village 
folk  are  becoming  addicted  to  gambling  and  that  a  pas- 
sion for  it  is  seizing  the  whole  mass  of  peasantry. ' '  * 

At  a  public  conference  held  lately  in  Petrograd, 
beers  and  wines  were  held  to  have  a  desirable  effect  on 
village  life,  and  the  ministry  was  requested  to  act 
accordingly.  The  Minister  of  Commerce  has  already 
recommended  that  the  sale  of  beer  and  wine,  contain- 
ing not  more  than  sixteen  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  be  per- 
mitted.2 

No  one  but  an  Utopian  dreamer  could  consider  it 
practically  possible  to  change  suddenly  and  by  force 
our  almost  universal  drinking  into  complete  absti- 
nence. The  mere  fact  that  fanatical  Prohibitionists 
believe  in  their  power  to  do  that  permanently,  is  proof 
that  their  faculties  are  non-reasoning.  Quite  as  im- 
possible would  it  be  to  force  the  entire  world  instantly 
to  stop  smoking. 

It  is  well-known  that,  after  tobacco-smoking  had 
been  introduced  into  England  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
who  had  learned  the  practice  from  the  Indians  of  the 
newly-discovered  continent  of  America,  the  habit 
spread  like  air  introduced  into  a  vacuum. 

Then  came  the  inevitable  denouncers  of  the  prac- 
tice. To  smoke  tobacco  meant  to  smoke  in  another 
nether  world  later.  The  habit  was  described  as  ex- 
travagant, filthy,  wasteful,  senseless  and  injurious; 

1  Alcohol  and  Society,  by  John  Koren. 

2  Birzhevya  Vyedomosty,  Petrograd. 


56     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

yet  it  spread,  until  now  more  tobacco  is  consumed 
yearly,  by  smoking  and  chewing,  than  ever  before  in 
the  earth's  history. 

Finally — to  return  to  alcohol — even  should  it  be 
possible  so  to  work  upon  the  passions  of  the  multitude 
that  a  majority  voted  unthinkingly  for  the  banishment 
of  alcohol,  there  would  succeed  the  inevitable  reaction. 
After  the  * l  victory, ' '  the  pressure  exerted  by  fanatical 
misrepresentation  and  exaggerated  statement  would  be 
withdrawn.  Sanity  would  then  reassert  itself,  and 
the  American  people  would  demand  the  re-establish- 
ment of  their  age-old  right  to  drink  how  and  what 
they  liked. 


CHAPTER  XII 

LET   THE   DRINK   PROBLEM    TAKE   CARE   OP   ITSELF 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  drink  problem,  with  rea- 
sonable restrictions,  would  take  care  of  itself,  were  it 
allowed  to  do  so.  ' '  Live,  and  let  live ' '  is  an  old  adage, 
apparently  forgotten  by  the  age  we  live  in.  Re- 
formers, usually  a  nuisance,  are  fast  becoming  a 
menace  to  individual  rights  and  liberties. 

Even  an  obscure  dentist,  a  Dr.  Pease,  succeeded,  by 
sheer  nerve,  bombast  and  whimpering,  in  securing  new 
laws,  and  in  amplifying  existing  ones,  against  smoking. 
And  this  specimen  of  professional  disturber  and 
trouble-maker,  to  attain  his  meddlesome  ends,  himself 
wrote  an  eulogistic  letter  about  himself,  and  signed  it, 
with  the  greatest  effrontery,  te  Annette  Hazelton,"  a 
creature  found  afterward  to  exist  only  in  the  doctor's 
imagination!  But  Dr.  Pease  does  not  smoke,  and 
therefore  wishes  no  one  else  to  smoke. 

I  have  mentioned  the  above  to  illustrate  the  power 
that  one  screaming  jackal  can  sometimes  exercise  over 
the  comfort  and  happiness  of  millions  of  superior,  and 
hence  quieter,  animals. 

The  peculiar  psychology  of  cranks,  fanatics,  and 
certain  reformers,  is  discussed  at  length  in  another 
part  of  this  work. 

57 


58     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Railroad  heads,  superintendents  of  factories,  and 
managers  generally  of  large  numbers  of  men,  encour- 
age their  employes  not  to  drink,  and  discharge  those 
who  indulge  to  excess  during  working  hours.  Some, 
indeed,  will  not  tolerate  even  the  moderate  drinker. 

Employers  are  within  their  rights  in  demanding 
strict  sobriety  on  the  part  of  their  workmen ;  it  being 
proper  that  they  should  conduct  their  business  as  they 
see  fit.  Doubtless  they  have  found  it  easier  to  enforce 
abstinence,  than  to  keep  large  bodies  of  men,  many 
of  whom  are  employed  temporarily,  within  moderate 
limits.  But  all  that  is  their  business,  and  no  one 
else 's — not  even  the  government 's. 

Now,  if  it  is  not  the  business  of  the  government  when 
men  choose  not  to  drink ;  neither  is  it  the  government  *s 
business  when  men  do  drink,  unless  the  government 
employs  those  men. 

Employers  and  employes  are  free  men,  not  slaves, 
prisoners,  paupers,  lunatics,  nor  degenerates;  and,  as 
free  men,  they  have  the  right  to  eat,  drink  and  dress, 
as  they,  or  the  men  for  whom  they  voluntarily  work, 
prescribe — provided  that,  in  so  doing,  they  commit  no 
outrage  upon  public  decency  or  decorum. 

I  contend  that  the  above  simple  reasoning  is  sound ; 
and  that,  even  though  a  majority  of  the  population  of 
this  country  should  vote  for  Federal  interference  in 
the  matter  of  moderate  drinking,  such  interference 
would  not  therefore  be  justified,  but  would  be  rank 
tyranny  to  the  millions  of  the  minority  opposed  to  it. 

I  would  also  say  here  that  I  consider  State  Pro- 


THE  DRINK  PROBLEM  59 

hibition,  and  even  local  option,  an  injustice  to  thou- 
sands; for  no  sumptuary  legislation,  affecting,  as  it 
does,  men's  private  habits,  could  be  decided  properly 
at  the  polls. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   WOBKINGMAN   SANS   DRINKING   AND  SMOKING 

AN  ingenious  argument  of  reformers,  which  is  a 
fallacy  on  its  face,  is  that  of  computing  how  much  the 
immense  army  of  labor  spends  annually  upon  drink 
and  tobacco,  and  then  suggesting  that  this  "enor- 
mous" sum  be  set  aside  for  use  as  a  defense  fund  for 
strike  purposes.  At  the  end  of  a  few  years,  it  is 
pointed  out,  if  those  men  had  saved  all  their  drink-and 
smoke-money,  they  could  then  demand  shorter  work- 
ing days  and  more  pay,  with  the  threat  that,  were  their 
demands  not  granted,  they  would  quit  work  in  a  body, 
and  live  for  an  indefinite  time  in  luxurious  idleness. 

But  the  capitalists,  aver  these  fallacious  reasoners, 
would  immediately  "give  in,"  knowing  that  their 
workers  were  independent,  because  of  their  ample  sup- 
ply of  funds. 

Than  that  could  anything  be  more  ridiculous?  In 
the  first  place,  if  all  the  workers  should  absolutely 
stop  drinking  and  smoking,  and  should  put  aside  the 
sums  which  they  would  have  spent  for  those  il foolish" 
purposes,  the  amount  saved  per  man,  "after  a  few 
years,"  would  not  suffice  to  maintain  his  family  and 
himself  for  more  than  a  few  weeks  while  he  remained 
idle,  the  average  workingman  expending  no  more  than 
about  one  dollar  a  week  on  his  "drinks"  and 

60 


SANS  DRINKING  AND  SMOKING          61 


" smokes."  Of  course,  the  hypothetical  aggregate 
sum  would  be  large ;  but  when  that  was  being  used  to 
support  an  immense  number  of  idle  men  and  their 
families,  it  would  soon  dwindle.  Hence  the  capitalists 
could  stand  their  workmen 's  brief  holiday  better  than 
the  workmen  could. 

But  does  any  sane  man  believe  that  the  workingmen 
would  do  any  such  thing  ?  Even  in  the  event  of  their 
stopping,  to  a  man,  both  smoking  and  drinking, 
would  each  one,  or  a  bare  majority,  willingly  con- 
tribute to  a  visionary  fund  all  the  money  which  they 
had  formerly  spent  gladly  for  needed  pleasure  and  re- 
laxation ?  Certainly  they  would  not ;  and  every  Pro- 
hibitionist knows  they  would  not. 

It  is  an  economic  mistake  to  assume  that  money  not 
spent  for  liquor  would  be  saved.  Such  an  assumption 
credits  the  poor  with  more  forethought  and  prudence 
than  they  possess.  But  money  diverted  from  liquor 
might  be  used  for  gambling  purposes,  or  otherwise 
wasted. 

Besides,  one  could  argue  in  the  same  way  about  any 
saving.  For  example,  there  are  many  luxuries,  other 
than  drinking  and  smoking,  which  it  would  be  easier 
and  pleasanter  to  do  without.  One  need  not  go  to  a 
picture  show;  nor  are  visits  to  the  theatre  essential. 
One  could  live  without  butter,  or  without  eggs,  or 
without  meat;  and  if  all  the  working  people  should 
eschew  any  one  of  those  luxuries,  and  should  put  the 
money  thus  ascetically  saved  into  a  fund,  they  might 
be  able,  after  a  lapse  of  years,  to  demand  better  wages, 
or  to  buy  so  much  stock  in  the  concerns  employing 


62      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

them,  as  virtually  to  own  them,  etc.  But  everyone 
knows  all  that ;  and,  though  the  reasoning  is  specious, 
it  is  elementary,  foolishly  visionary,  and  wholly  im- 
practicable. 

Among  all  large  bodies  of  men  a  certain  percentage 
save ;  but  there  has  yet  to  be  devised  a  scheme  which 
would  persuade  or  force  all  to  save. 

Again,  what  would  the  workingman  do  with  his 
spare  time,  his  periods  of  ease,  if  he  could  neither 
smoke  his  pipe,  nor  drink  a  glass  of  beer  with  a  com- 
rade ?  We  do  not  know. 

He  might  gamble,  which  would  be  more  expensive 
and  more  demoralizing  than  drinking.  He  might 
acquire  some  drug  habit,  which  would  kill  him 
more  quickly  and  unpleasantly  than  alcohol.  He 
might  visit  cheap  picture  shows ;  but  those  would  pall 
upon  him.  Some,  of  course,  after  their  day's  work, 
would  go  home  to  their  wives  and  children ;  but  many 
workingmen  do  that  now,  and  to  change  those,  who 
had  found  the  social  atmosphere  of  saloons  more  con- 
genial than  the  constraint  felt  in  their  " homes,"  into 
11  family"  men,  would  require  more  than  the  mere 
closing  of  saloons.  Such  workmen  would  find  other 
and  probably  worse  diversions  elsewhere. 

Would  the  workingman,  then,  be  any  better  off  if 
deprived  of  the  saloon  ?  We  must  say  that  we  doubt 
it.  Men  who  work  with  their  hands — and  such  labor 
is  honest  and  useful — are  not  as  a  rule,  interested  in 
art,  in  literature,  or  in  science.  Perhaps  they  would 
become  so.  But  that  would  not  help  us,  nor  them 
either;  for  another  question  would  arise:  Who 


SANS  DRINKING  AND  SMOKING         63 

would  do  the  actual  work  of  the  world — scientists, 
physicians,  men  in  political  preferments,  college  pro- 
fessors, and  millionaire  capitalists?  Hardly — seeing 
that  men,  able  to  work  effectively  with  their  brains, 
would  find  coarse  and  practically  automatic  manual 
labor  little  to  their  liking.  Yet  has  the  arduous  work 
of  the  world  to  be  done,  and  some  must  do  it. 

And  so,  why  not  let  the  honest  workingmen  employ 
those  talents,  with  which  they  have  been  endowed,  to 
the  best  advantage? 

Meddlesomeness  in  men's  private  affairs,  and  even 
with  their  private  vices,  if  reformers  will  so  call 
drinking  and  smoking,  can  end  only  in  disaster. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  WORKINGMAN'S  CLUB — THE  SALOON 

AT  least  something  should  be  said  for  the  much 
abused  saloon.  The  saloon  has  been  called  the  work- 
ingman's  club.  Is  it?  Let  us  see. 

That  some  saloons  are  low,  even  vile,  it  would  be 
useless  to  deny.  But  such  attract  the  vile,  never  the 
honest,  among  the  poor.  Most  saloons,  however,  are 
not  vile ;  for,  the  majority  of  men  not  being  vile,  many 
vile  saloons  would  fail,  through  a  lack  of  patronage. 

There  are  three  main  types:  The  low-class,  the 
plain,  " decent"  kind,  and  the  high-class  saloon.  All 
are  modifications  of  rich  men's  clubs. 

In  the  club,  the  bar  is  not  in  evidence ;  but  there  is 
much  evidence  of  the  bar.  Men  sit  in  lounging  rooms, 
in  ultra-comfortable  chairs,  chatting  with  fellow  mem- 
bers, and  ever  and  anon  ordering  their  favorite  drinks. 
Tiring  of  talk,  they  may  repair  to  the  grill-room,  if 
hungry;  or  to  the  billiard  room,  if  they  wish  amuse- 
ment. Besides,  they  have  a  library  to  stimulate  the 
mind,  and  a  gymnasium  in  which  to  exercise  the  body. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  honest  workingman  knows  no 
club,  except  the  menacing  one  held  by  some  self-con- 
stituted reformer.  His  " place"  consists  of  a  clean 
room,  plainly  furnished  with  tables  and  chairs,  and  in 
which  is  a  bar.  Newspapers  and  back  numbers  of 

64 


THE  WORKMAN'S  CLUB— THE  SALOON    65 

magazines  are  often  thrown  upon  the  tables.  But 
here  he  may  chat  with  a  friend,  smoke  his  pipe,  and 
drink  a  glass  of  beer.  If  hungry,  he  may  '  '  dip ' '  into 
the  free  lunch.  Should  he  desire  amusement,  he  may 
throw  dice  with  the  bar-keeper,  or  borrow  a  pack  of 
cards  from  the  same  obliging  functionary,  and  play 
seven-up  or  pinochle  with  a  select  coterie  of  his  pals. 
Or,  in  an  adjoining  room,  there  may  be  a  pool-table, 
with  an  always  "open"  game.  In  addition,  some 
saloons  contain  pianos,  more  or  less  cracked,  victrolas, 
or  phonographs.  The  gymnasium,  the  workingman 
can  dispense  with,  as,  having  to  work  hard  for  his 
living,  he  feels  little  need  of  exercise. — Not  much  dif- 
ference in  the  two  "clubs,"  after  all. 

"Decent"  saloons — and  most  are  that — so  far  from 
encouraging  intoxication,  discourage  it.  Not  because 
saloon  men  are  more  moral  than  other  men.  They 
discourage  intoxication  for  business  reasons.  Saloon 
keepers  are  philosophers  in  their  way,  and  know 
human  nature.  They  have  discovered  that  more  than 
ninety  per  cent,  of  their  patrons  are  decent,  temperate 
men,  and  that  it  pays  to  cater  to  the  respectable 
element.  Drunken  men  are  noisy,  quarrelsome  and 
generally  obnoxious.  They  are  not  wanted  in  saloons, 
because  they  annoy  other  patrons,  and,  consequently, 
hurt  trade. 

In  support  of  the  above  assertions,  which  some  may 
view  as  mere  expressions  of  opinion  upon  my  part,  I 
can  not  do  better  than  quote  excerpts  of  the  report  of 
Mr.  Ernest  Carroll  Moore,  who,  at  the  request  of  the 
Committee  of  Fifty,  undertook  a  personal  investiga- 


66     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

tion  of  conditions  existing  in  the  nineteenth  ward  of 
Chicago. 

"That  section  covers  an  area  of  about  eight-tenths 
of  a  square  mile.  Its  population  of  48,191  is  made  up 
of  twenty-five  or  more  nationalities ;  the  predominating 
ones  being:  Americans,  6,184;  Germans,  6,721; 
Italians,  5,784;  and  Bohemians,  2,944.  It  is  a  work- 
ingman's  district;  its  population  being  typical  of  un- 
skilled labor  in  general.  As  to  moral  conditions, 
neither  the  extremes  of  vice,  nor  of  virtue,  are  reached ; 
while  the  general  moral  tone  is  rather  healthful. 

' '  There  are  about  two  hundred  saloons  in  the  ward, 
and,  in  perhaps  no  other  large  city,  has  the  saloon 
enjoyed  such  a  minimum  of  legal  restrictions  and 
maximum  of  liberty,  within  those  restrictions,  as  in 
Chicago.  These  saloons  were  visited  at  various  hours 
of  the  day  and  night.  We  [Mr.  Moore  and  his  asso- 
ciate investigators]  did  the  things  which  other  men  do 
in  the  saloons.  They  were  our  loafing  place,  news 
centre,  place  for  discussion,  and  common  meeting 
ground;  while  the  free  lunch  counter  served  in  large 
part  as  the  basis  of  food  supply. ' ' 

The  summary  of  Mr.  Moore 's  experience  follows : 

"In  the  first  place,  the  saloons  of  the  nineteenth 
ward  do  not  stand  for  intemperance  among  their 
patrons.  In  visiting  something  over  two  hundred  sa- 
loons in  the  ward,  at  various  times  of  the  night  and 
day,  I  saw  just  three  drunken  men.  Thus,  the  saloons, 
which  have  been  the  subject  of  this  inquiry,  do  not 
1  trade  in,  or  batten  upon,  intemperance.' 

"As  to  the  general  character  of  the  patrons  of  the 


THE  WORKMAN'S  CLUB— THE  SALOON     67 

saloon,  it  must  be  said  unequivocally  that  it  does  not 
1  personify  the  vilest  elements  of  modern  civilization/ 
unless  the  modern  civilization  all  about  us  in  this 
locality  be  regarded  as  monotonously  vile.  There  are, 
in  all,  but  two  saloons,  known  to  the  police  and  to 
the  public  at  large  as  headquarters  of  gangs  of 
thieves;  and  there  is  one  that  is  a  well-known  assig- 
nation house.  But  it  is  as  unfair  to  generalize,  from 
such  facts,  that  the  saloon  personifies  such  elements, 
as  it  would  be  to  declare  that  the  home  personifies 
them;  inasmuch  as  many  more  homes  than  saloons 
are  contaminated  by  their  presence.  There  is  no  sa- 
loon in  the  ward  which  is  a  house  of  prostitution,  and 
no  saloon  which  is  a  gambler's  headquarters.  There 
are  certain  saloons  in  other  localities  which  personify 
such  elements ;  ~but  it  is  because  the  locality  personifies 
them  also.  (Italics  mine.)  .  .  . 

"What  is  it  one  sees  inside  one  of  these  saloons? 
Not  a  riotous  company  intent  upon  reducing  itself  to 
intoxication ;  but,  instead,  a  well-behaved  little  group 
of  men,  who  play  cards  together,  read,  smoke,  and 
drink  a  glass  of  beer.  In  not  a  single  one,  of  the  many 
such  groups  observed,  did  drinking  seem  to  be  the 
most  important  thing.  One  can  watch  card  games,  in 
the  Italian  quarters,  for  hours,  without  seeing  a 
single  drink  ordered.  So,  also,  in  Irish  saloons, 
famous  discussions  are  carried  on,  in  which  no  drop 
of  liquor  figures.  In  the  German  and  Bohemian  dis- 
tricts a  single  glass  of  beer  seems  a  sufficient  stimulus 
for  a  prolonged  period  of  meditation. 

"Of  157  saloons,  of  whose  inducements  an  accurate 


68     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

list  was  kept,  35  contained  chairs  and  card  tables ;  92 
offered  lunch  free;  in  70,  patrons  might  find  papers, 
and  an  opportunity  to  read  them;  58  contained  pool- 
tables;  3  offered  the  use  of  a  piano  or  [an]  organ;  in 
2  were  well-equipped  gymnasiums;  and  1  offered  the 
use  of  a  hand-ball  court  free/7 

I  have  quoted  the  above  report  verbatim,  because 
of  the  rarity  of  such  an  investigation  being  undertaken 
in  so  intimate  and  personal  a  way.  Besides  the  in- 
tense human  interest  of  the  report,  the  facts  and  ob- 
servations deduced  appear  to  be  unbiased,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  fairly  typical  of  saloons  in  general. 

Many  substitutes  for  the  saloon  have  been  tried  and 
found  wanting;  possibly,  because  no  man  likes  what 
someone  thinks  he  ought  to  like,  but  only  what  he 
himself  can  not  help  liking.  When  some  well-mean- 
ing uplifter  tells  a  beer-drinker  that  coffee,  tea,  lemon- 
ade and  sarsaparilla,  are  a  great  deal  better  than  beer, 
the  listener  may  smile  indulgently,  but  he  will  con- 
tinue to  drink  the  beer,  if  he  prefers  it.  The  re- 
former 's  preferences  will  neither  influence  nor  interest 
him. 

To  the  workingman,  the  saloon  exemplifies  luxuries 
rarely  present  in  his  home,  and  not  found  in  such 
profusion  in  other  public  places.  The  saloon,  in 
winter,  is  warm  and  brilliantly  lighted ;  in  summer,  it 
is  cool  and  usually  fairly  clean;  but,  above  all,  the 
saloon  is  social ;  and  the  workingman,  like  every  other 
human  being,  craves  the  society  of  his  kind. 

Nevertheless,  the  saloons  in  this  country  could  un- 
doubtedly be  improved.  First,  let  us  ask,  what  is  the 


THE  WORKMAN'S  CLUB-  -THE  SALOON     69 

good  of  the  saloon?  Evidently  the  social  side;  the 
bad,  is  the  drinking.  Ergo,  to  improve  the  saloon, 
there  should  be  more  sociability  and  less  drinking. 
In  France  there  are  cafes,  and  in  Germany,  beer 
gardens — family  places.  Over  there  the  drinking 
places  are  not  in  the  same  disrepute  that  they  are 
here,  and  for  obvious  reasons.  A  man  usually  be- 
haves himself  and  does  not  become  intoxicated  in  a 
place  where  he  takes,  or  could  take,  his  wife  and 
family.  The  presence  of  respectable  married  women 
exercises  a  wholesome  restraint  on  drinking.  If  the 
saloon,  particularly  the  low  class  ones,  must  go,  why 
not  replace  them  with  larger  and  more  commodious 
'  *  gardens ' '  similar  to  those  abroad  ?  It  could  be  done ; 
it  would  pay,  and  the  whole  country  would  be  much 
benefited.  There  could  also  be  many  attractions 
added,  besides  drinking.  Card  tables,  billiard  and 
pool  tables,  bowling  alleys,  reading  rooms,  music,  and 
even  a  room  for  dancing,  would  promote  sociability 
and  discourage  immoderate  drinking. 

Such  places  would  not  be  the  failures  that  re- 
formers' restaurants,  coffee  houses  and  temperance 
saloons  have  been,  for  the  simple  reason  that  men  who 
frequent  saloons  do  so  because  they  do  not  like  "soft 
stuff, ' '  and  therefore  when  they  are  offered  soft  stuff, 
even  with  ' '  trimmings, ' '  there  is  no  appeal. 

In  the  past,  before  high  license,  saloons  were 
numerous,  and  many  of  them  were  vile.  Then  came 
the  high-license  system  which,  according  to  the  re- 
formers, was  to  be  a  long  step  toward  the  regener- 
ation of  mankind.  The  result  of  high  license  was, 


70     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

however,  rather  disappointing.  True,  it  weeded  out 
some  hell-holes,  facilitated  supervision,  eliminated 
many  unsubstantial  dealers,  and  thus  elevated  to  some 
extent  the  tone  of  the  trade.  But  high-license  had 
other  effects  which  were  not  so  desirable.  For  ex- 
ample, it  meant  expense  to  the  saloon  keeper  which  he 
had  to  make  up  from  the  dear  public  in  trade.  He, 
therefore,  in  so  far  as  he  was  able,  pushed  the  sale  of 
distilled  liquors,  they  being  more  profitable  than  the 
malted  drinks — indeed,  dealers  selling  only  the  latter, 
in  high-licensed  places,  led  a  precarious  existence. 

Yet  the  high-license  system  has  accomplished  good 
— good,  however,  that  would  be  much  better,  were  a 
uniform  taxation  not  exacted.  Tax  the  saloons,  by  all 
means ;  but  do  not  tax  all  alike. 

In  Norway,  Sweden  and  Denmark,  beers  containing 
not  more  than  2.8  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  by  volume,  are 
not  taxed  at  all ;  the  natural  consequence  being  a  great 
stimulation  in  their  production  and  substitution  for 
the  strongly  alcoholic  drinks.  In  Norway,  malt  bev- 
erages, above  2.8  per  cent.,  are  taxed  proportionally  to 
their  strength ;  but  no  beers,  containing  more  than  five 
and  one-half  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  may  be  manufac- 
tured. 

"Physiologically,"  says  John  Koren,  "there  is  a 
wide  gulf  between  the  possible  injury  from  the  ordi- 
nary use  of  pure  light  beers,  and  the  indubitable 
damage  to  the  individual  as  well  as  to  society  through 
a  habitual  indulgence  in  distilled  spirits.  The  recent 
Alcohol  Commission  of  Norway  says  on  this  point: 
'At  the  outset  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  danger  to 


THE  WORKMAN'S  CLUB— THE  SALOON     71 

society  from  alcoholic  drinks  differs  utterly  according 
as  their  alcoholic  strength  is  large  or  small.  Further- 
more, it  seems  clear  that  while  the  strongest  of  them 
— that  is,  whiskey — must  be  subjected  to  particularly 
severe  regulations,  the  opposite  is  true  of  the  weakest 
drinks  of  this  sort.  Quite  on  the  contrary,  the  latter 
should  be  subjected  to  lenient  regulations,  since  an 
increasing  extension  of  their  use  will  serve  to  replace 
the  stronger  beverages,  and  therefore,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  majority,  represents  an  essential  means  in  the 
warfare  against  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  beverages.'  ' 

Were  temperance  advocates  really  such,  they  might 
get  somewhere ;  that  is,  they  might  encourage  drinkers, 
by  new  tax  regulations  along  the  lines  suggested  above, 
to  substitute  the  milder  for  the  stronger  beverages. 

While  intemperate  temperance  reformers  will  not 
take  the  hint,  others  with  a  ray  of  reason  may. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OP   FANATICS 

AVID  Prohibitionists  class  with  anti-tobacco  agita- 
tors, vegetarians,  raw-food  advocates,  fruit-and-nut 
cranks,  fresh-air  fiends,  etc. ; — all  being  more  or  less 
abnormal.  The  food-faddist  is  usually  dyspeptic; 
those  who  ''must  have"  doors  and  windows  wide  open 
"no  matter  what,"  have  often  a  consumptive  tend- 
ency ;  denouncers  of  smoking  ' '  can 't  stand ' '  tobacco ; 
while  the  more  rabid  prohibitionists  find  drink  almost 
irresistible  to  their  weak  wills. 

Before  portraying  the  peculiar  psychology  of  the 
extreme  anti-alcoholist,  it  will  be  interesting  and  addi- 
tionally clarifying  to  discuss  the  psychic  workings  of 
other  fanatics. 

First,  let  us  take  the  religious  fanatic — not  includ- 
ing, of  course,  the  sane  and  sincere  religionist.  Scien- 
tifically considered,  a  close  affinity  exists  between  re- 
ligion and  eroticism ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  rabidly 
religious  persons  are  usually  erotic. 

During  adolescence,  many  young  girls,  naturally 
erotic,  are  brought  up  very  strictly.  They  are  taught 
that  all  erotic  thoughts  are  sinful  and  must  be  sup- 
pressed; and  that  the  discussion  of  sexual  subjects  is 
taboo. 

72 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FANATICS        73 

Being  well-mannered  young  women,  they  learn  to 
suppress  their  natural  desires  by  a  process  of  sublima- 
tion, or  a  relegation  of  their  conscious,  but  forbidden, 
longings,  to  the  realms  of  the  subconscious.  Later 
there  ensues  a  struggle  between  the  desires  which  have 
become  subconscious,  and  the  early  training  which 
has  insisted  that  those  desires  be  not  expressed. 

Now,  ordinarily,  the  struggle  results  in  a  just  mean 
being  found,  and,  as  a  consequence,  most  women  re- 
main normal.  But,  occasionally,  when  either  the  sup- 
pressed desires  are  exceptionally  strong,  or  the  early 
training  has  been  extraordinarily  strict,  what  psychol- 
ogists call  the  " purity  complex"  supervenes.  Yet, 
even  in  the  latter  case,  the  struggle  to  repress  desires, 
inculcated  from  the  dawn  of  puberty  to  be  disgraceful, 
continues. 

The  unhappy  subject  now  strives  to  erect  barriers 
to  prevent  her  overwhelming  desires,  no  longer  sub- 
conscious, from  finding  expression.  So,  often,  she 
embraces  religion,  with  intense  fervor,  as  a  defense 
action;  in  short,  to  prevent  satisfaction  of  her 
"libido,"  she  becomes  a  religious  fanatic. 

If  it  be  asked  why  religion,  rather  than  something 
else,  is  seized  upon  for  that  purpose,  the  answer  is 
that  religion  is  most  closely  affiliated  with  eroticism. 

The  hysteria  frequently  manifested  by  religious 
cranks  results  from  the  contest  between  the  longing  to 
forget  and  the  desire  to  act  and  procure  gratification. 
Thus  all  " cranks"  are  more  or  less  diseased,  or,  at 
least,  are  abnormal. 

Hysteria  has  for  its  basis  the  unfulfilled  desire.    Its 


74     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

symptoms  are  the  manifestations  of  hyperactivities 
and  overcompensations  opposed  to  the  powerful  de- 
mands of  Nature;  for,  when  objectionable  desires  are 
deflected,  they  become  manifest  as  violent  prejudices. 

Fanaticism  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  hysterical 
conduct  at  its  climax. 

The  danger  of  complete  suppression  of  the  natural 
instincts  is  well  exemplified  in  girls  educated  in  the 
seclusion  of  convents.  There  nothing  sexual  is 
breathed,  or,  supposedly,  even  thought.  No  male  per- 
son, during  the  entire  period  of  the  inmates'  adoles- 
cence, obtrudes  either  his  physical  or  his  psychical  per- 
sonality upon  their  feminine  consciousness. 

But  the  girls  grow,  and,  at  last,  when  their  wings 
are  sufficiently  strong,  they  take  their  flight  out  into 
the  wide  world.  Men  are  there;  and,  often,  the  con- 
vent-bred girl  falls  desperately  in  love  with  the  first 
one  she  meets. 

On  the  other  hand,  had  the  young  woman,  "stand- 
ing with  reluctant  feet,  where  the  brook  and  river 
meet,"  mixed  with  boys  in  girlhood,  and  with  young 
men  in  early  womanhood,  she  would  not  offer  her 
sweet  purity  to  any  man,  but  only  to  some  man, — the 
man  of  her  dreams.  All  which,  however,  is  general. 
There  are  exceptions. 

In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  the  commonly- 
known  fact  that  when  youth  is  allowed  light  alcoholic 
beverages  at  the  family  table,  there  rarely  occurs  ab- 
normal alcoholic  craving  after  adult  age. 

Whatever  is  forbidden  becomes  mysterious;  and 
mystery  possesses  always  a  subtle  fascination. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FANATICS        75 

And  here  the  psychology  of  love  deserves  passing 
notice. 

Love  may  change  to  hatred,  but  never  to  indiffer- 
ence. If  a  man 's  wife  leaves  him ;  and  he  follows  and 
kills  her ;  the  crime  attests  his  overwhelming  desire  for 
her.  If  he  had  not  loved  her,  he  would  have  remained 
indifferently  at  home. 

The  reason  for  the  metamorphosis  (love  becoming 
hatred)  is  that,  while  extreme  love  gives  extreme  pleas- 
ure, a  sudden  desertion  changes  the  extreme  pleasure 
of  being  loved  into  the  extreme  pain  of  not  being 
loved ;  the  pain  begetting  the  insane  anger  and  hatred, 
exactly  as  the  pleasure  begat  the  love. 

Some  remarks  of  Dr.  B.  S.  Talmey,  writing  in  the 
New  York  Medical  Journal,  anent  divers  fanatics,  will 
help  us  to  understand  the  no  less  interesting  psy- 
chology of  the  extreme  prohibitionist,  which  we  shall 
soon  briefly  discuss. 

"The  fanatic  purist,  who  clamors  the  loudest  against 
obscenity,  and  who  would  entirely  eradicate  nudity 
from  this  world  is,  in  his  nature,  a  sensualist.  Be- 
neath the  pretensions,  or  rather  beneath  the  honest 
desire  for  purity  and  sinlessness,  lie  very  ordinary 
elements.  .  .  . 

"He  seeks  freedom  from  the  [subconscious]  ob- 
scenity wish  by  losing  himself  in  what  he  considers 
social  service.  The  pseudo-virtuous  indignation  over 
the  nude  or  obscene  is  only  an  outlet  for  his  natural 
ardor  for  the  obscene  and  the  nude.  In  his  eagerness 
to  find  a  defense  against  his  unconscious  [subcon- 
scious] tendencies,  his  fantasy  becomes  twisted  and 


76      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

distorted.  Everything  in  life  [to  him]  bears  an  ob- 
scene stamp.  .  .  .  His  loud  clamor  against  the  sacri- 
legious evil  of  the  representation  of  the  [to  him]  ob- 
scene in  literature  and  art,  is  only  the  defensive  fence 
he  has  built  around  himself  against  his  unconscious 
[subconscious]  desires  for  the  very  things  he  is 
clamoring  against." 

Concerning  the  relentless  feminine  persecutors  of 
the  prostitute,  Dr.  Talmey  says:  ''The  turbulent 
zealot,  the  perverted  morality  hunter,  who  is  shocked 
and  hurt  over  the  sins  of  the  scarlet  woman,  and 
plumes  herself  upon  her  self -placed  halo,  and  prides 
herself  upon  her  superiority,  has  in  her  makeup  cer- 
tain traits  of  her  she  hates  so  relentlessly.  She  is  by 
nature  a  varietist.  Under  different  circumstances  she 
herself  would  have  become  a  priestess  of  Venus 
Vulgivaga.  .  .  .  The  symbolic  reminiscence  of  the 
cravings  toward  variety  [possessed  in  her  early  life] 
determines  her  sanctimonious  behavior.  The  perse- 
cuting zeal  of  the  reformer  represents  nothing  but 
the  defense  action  against  the  symbolical  reminis- 
cence. ' ' 

Of  the  anti-vivisectionist,  Dr.  Talmey  observes: 
' '  The  fanatic  anti-vivisectionist  harbors  in  his  nature 
certain  features  [traits]  of  the  sadist.  He  is  by 
nature  cruel.  But,  early  in  his  youth,  he  received  the 
mandates  of  parents  and  teachers  to  be  kind  to  ani- 
mals. These  teachings  [afterward]  come  into  conflict 
with  the  cruel  tendencies  in  his  character. ' ' 

The  result,  in  that  particular  fanatic's  case,  is  that 
the  cruel  tendencies,  checked  by  the  early  human 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FANATICS       77 

teachings,  are  repressed,  but  appear  later  as  "sym- 
bolical reminiscences"  (imagined  delights  of  cruelty), 
which  latter  determine  the  fanatic  ravings  against 
vivisection;  those  ravings  being  only  defense  actions 
against  his  subconscious  cruelty. 

"He  is  cruel  enough,"  Dr.  Talmey  adds,  "to  sac- 
rifice millions  of  sick  children,  if  only  his  beloved 
rabbits  are  safe." 

The  fanatic  anti-semite,  the  half-crazy  socialist,  and 
the  long-haired,  somber  anarchist,  receive  no  better 
treatment  from  Dr.  Talmey. 

Those  who  may  consider  the  point  of  view  of  the 
great  psychopathologist  extreme,  should  remember 
that  he  is  not  arraigning  the  few  sincere  uplifters  of 
mankind,  but  only  the  ever-increasing  number  of 
fanatics,  who,  as  he  believes,  are  abnormal  and  per- 
verted. 

There  have  been  eminent,  but  bitter,  opponents  of 
noise,  who  were  themselves  noisy.  For  example, 
biographical  history  records  that  Thomas  Carlyle 
hated  noise  so  thoroughly  that  he  had  his  studio  built 
sound-proof  and  situated  in  one  of  the  most  secluded 
spots  in  Chelsea;  and  the  diary  of  his  wife,  Jane 
Wels,  is  filled  with  entries  describing  the  torture  she 
endured,  because  of  her  husband  ?s  rage  and  annoyance 
at  noise.  She  said  he  continually  harped  upon  the 
impossibility  of  thinking  or  of  even  existing  in  such 
noisy  surroundings. 

Yet,  Carlyle  himself  was  so  loud  a  talker  that  he 
was  a  nuisance  to  his  friends.  Charles  Darwin  said 
of  Carlyle,  whom  he  met  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  he 


78      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

made  to  Herbert  Spencer:  "That  unbearable  man 
sat  for  three  hours  and  talked  to  me  continuously 
about  the  'sacred  force  of  silence!  '  " 

Carlyle,  like  a  great  many  less  prominent  men,  was 
so  full  of  emotion  himself,  that  he  could  not  endure 
it  in  others.  And  here  we  see  the  basis  of  the  recip- 
rocal attraction  of  those  opposite  in  temperament. 
The  noisy,  talkative  man  likes  a  quiet,  sedate  woman ; 
and  vice  versa.  So  jealous  are  we  of  our  own  traits, 
that  they  seem  insufferable  in  others. 

John  Stuart  Mill,  who  was  fanatical  on  calm  and 
rest,  and  who  was  an  arch-enemy  of  noise  on  almost  all 
occasions,  once  hired  a  boy  to  beat  a  drum,  in  a  room 
adjoining  his,  "to  stimulate  his  thoughts." 

Charles  Dickens  went  so  far  as  to  edit  a  pamphlet, 
in  1864,  containing  all  conceivable  arguments  against 
noise.  But,  although  an  implacable  foe  to  noise, 
Dickens  could  not  stay  away  from  the  clatter  of  Lori- 
don  for  more  than  a  few  weeks. 

Really,  noise  is  a  measure  of  culture ;  the  most  cul- 
tivated being  the  quiet  and  refined. 

Every  faddist  harbors  in  his  subconsciousness  a 
complex  in  opposition  to  his  fad;  his  pretense  of  de- 
testation of  certain  acts  or  habits  being  an  exagger- 
ated procedure  to  protect  himself  from  what  he  se- 
cretly craves,  but  knows  he  would  be  better  without. 

The  excited  prohibitionist  is  an  example  of  one  de- 
fending himself  desperately  from  the  "drink  com- 
plex." In  his  youth  he  received  strict  injunctions 
against  the  saloon,  and  the  vice  of  drinking.  But,  un- 
fortunately, through  inheritance  or  for  some  other 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FANATICS        79 

reason,  he  possesses  an  abnormal  love  of  liquor.  The 
resulting  " drink  complex"  is  the  psychopathological 
state  ensuing  from  the  terrific  struggle  of  the  powerful 
alcoholic  craving,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  severe 
commands  against  yielding  to  the  craving,  on  the 
other. 

To  understand  such  a  defective's  agonizing  state  of 
mind,  one  must  imagine  the  suffering  produced  by 
the  conflict  between  a  maddening  desire  to  drink,  and 
the  powerful  inhibitive  moral  training,  reinforced  by 
the  realization  of  ultimate  ruin  if  the  desire  wins. 

Always  present  in  the  unfortunate's  mind  is  the 
V symbolical  reminiscence";  that  is  to  say,  the  imag- 
ined gratification  of  his  craving,  to  be  followed  by  the 
unholy,  and  hence  trebly  desirable,  delight  of  intox- 
ication. 

So,  is  it  wonderful  that  such  an  one,  afflicted  with 
a  secret  and  almost  irresistible  desire  for  alcohol, 
should  either  become  a  confirmed  sot,  or  should  seize 
upon  fanatical  prohibition  as  a  last  desperate  defense 
action  ? 

Question  the  man  in  the  street  who  can  not  resist 
liquor,  and  he  will  tell  you  that  he  favors  prohibition ; 
in  other  words,  he  would  protect  himself,  though  the 
rest  of  the  world  suffer  in  consequence. 

The  New  York  Medical  Journal,  for  December  2, 
1916,  remarks  under  Interclinical  Notes:  "Reformed 
drunkards  and  drug  victims  are  always  the  most  anx- 
ious that  alcohol  and  narcotics  shall  be  universally 
prohibited. ' ' 

Jacob  Miller,  proprietor  of  the  Hotel  Hot  Springs, 


80     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Arkansas,  while  attending  the  National  Hotel  Men's 
Exposition,  held  at  the  Grand  Central  Palace,  on 
November  23,  1916,  related  the  following  incident: 
"Not  long  ago  sat  in  my  hotel  a  party  of  men  who, 
before  they  left  the  table  for  good — or  it  may  have 
been  for  evil — disposed  of  121 — count  'em — 121  quarts 
of  whiskey  and  1200  cigars.  When  they  left  us,  those 
folks  went  over  to  Little  Bock  and  cast  votes  which 
made  our  part  of  the  state  dry." 

Small  wonder  that  men  weak  enough  to  drink  that 
amount  of  liquor  at  a  sitting,  should  vote  for  pro- 
hibition— anything  to  protect  them  from  their  folly. 
But,  were  liquor  the  deadly  poison  we  are  assured  it 
is,  would  any  one  of  them  have  been  able  to  cast  a 
vote  at  all? 

I  ask  the  reader  now,  fairly,  would  not  National 
Prohibition  be  unwise  legislation  in  that  it  would  be 
passed  chiefly  by  defectives  and  for  defectives;  thus 
favoring  subnormals  above  normals — nay,  would  such 
legislation  be  even  sane  ? 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ARE   ABSTAINERS   SUPERIOR? 

A  RATHER  interesting  question,  which.  I  admit  I  can 
not  answer  positively  is:  Are  abstainers,  taking 
them  en  masse,  and  estimating  their  worth  by  their 
works,  and  not  by  laboratory  experiments,  superior  to 
the  army  of  moderate  drinkers?  Are  abstainers  su- 
perior mentally  even  to  many  immoderate  drinkers; 
it  being  well-known  that  some  of  the  most  brilliant 
geniuses  have  been,  unfortunately,  over-addicted  to 
alcohol?  Unbiased  statistics  on  that  question  would 
be  interesting  and  illuminating. 

Nervous  persons,  usually  the  more  intelligent  part 
of  the  population,  are  most  likely  to  use  alcohol, 
though  not  necessarily  to  excess;  and  it  has  by  no 
means  been  proved  by  physicians,  scientists,  or  even 
by  the  sapient  insurance  companies,  that  such  persons 
would  live  longer  and  enjoy  better  health  without  al- 
cohol. 

It  is  almost  a  truism  that  the  richer  and  more  highly 
endowed  physically  and  intellectually  a  country  is,  the 
greater  is  its  consumption  of  alcohol. 

In  Finland  and  Norway,  poor  countries,  alcohol 
consumption  is  lowest.  "In  Flanders,  where  all  the 
pathological  'maxima  are  heaped  up/'  says  Vander- 
velde, — ''mortality,  ignorance,  criminality, — the  con- 
si 


82      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

sumption  of  spirits  is  much  less  than  in  the  rich  and 
industrial  Wallony." 

According  to  the  United  States  Statistical  Abstract 
for  1914,  page  61,  the  average  percentage  of  illiteracy 
in  the  eight  Prohibition  states — Georgia,  Kansas, 
Maine,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  Oklahoma,  Ten- 
nessee, and  West  Virginia — is  11.9;  meaning  that  in 
those  states  about  twelve  out  of  every  hundred  citizens 
can  not  read  or  write.  On  the  other  hand,  by 
the  same  authority,  the  eight  "wet"  states — 
California,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Minnesota,  Nebraska, 
Ohio,  Vermont,  and  Wisconsin — harbor  only  3.1  per 
cent,  of  illiterates ;  that  is  to  say,  those  wet  states  did 
harbor  that  percentage  in  1914,  but  in  1916  Nebraska 
went  dry,  and  that  may,  in  time,  alter  the  illiteracy 
figures. 

Again,  for  the  most  part,  our  cities  are  "wet,"  and 
our  country  districts  are  "dry."  Yet,  our  country- 
wide draft  shows  many  more  rejections  for  physical 
disabilities  of  men  from  villages  and  small  towns 
(dry  places),  than  from  cities  (wet  places).  Also, 
medical  boards  know  that  there  are  more  defectives  in 
country  schools  than  in  city  schools. 

If  abstainers  are  superior  either  physically  or 
mentally  to  moderate  drinkers,  such  superiority  is 
neither  apparent  nor  real. 

Intemperance  and  a  craving  for  excitement  have  al- 
ways been  characteristic  of  strong  dominant  races. 
All  warlike  peoples  have  shown  a  love  of  intoxicants. 
In  a  word,  the  warlike  and  creative  spirit  have,  in  the 
past,  always  accompanied  intemperance. 


ARE  ABSTAINERS  SUPERIOR?  83 

Finally,  alcohol  has  played  a  not  inconsiderable  part 
in  the  religious  rites  and  ceremonies  of  a  bygone  age, 
in  treaties  and  political  discussions,  in  the  proclama- 
tions of  war  and  of  peace,  and  it  has  had  much  to  do 
in  the  socializing  and  amalgamation  of  all  the  races 
of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

ALCOHOL  AND   CANDY 

IT  is  curious  that  men,  when  deprived  of  alcohol, 
crave  candy  and  other  sweets. 

A  Brooklyn  boy,  Arthur  Lang,  while  on  the  Mexican 
border,  wrote  to  Dr.  Charles  P.  Peterman  as  follows: 
''The  food  here  has  been  pretty  poor,  and  all  the 
water  we  get  is  very  warm,  but  we  are  glad  to  get  it, 
as  there  are  some  days  when  we  haven't  a  drop.  But 
it  is  a  very  funny  thing,  everyone  of  us,  from  the 
youngest  to  the  oldest,  is  crazy  for  candy,  and  we  can 
not  get  it."  Mr.  Lang  closes  his  epistle  with  an 
earnest  request  for  candy. 

The  editor  of  the  Medical  World,  commenting  upon 
an  article  in  the  Confectioners'  Journal  regarding  the 
value  of  candy  as  a  preventive  of  alcoholic  craving, 
thus  addresses  us:  "If  any  man  doubts  that  candy 
will  cure  him  of  the  drink  habit,  he  can  easily  test  it. 
The  man  who  puts  lots  of  molasses  on  his  wheat  cakes 
at  breakfast  will  find  himself  gradually  forgetting  to 
stop  in  for  his  customary  drink  on  his  way  to 
work.  .  .  . 

"It  has  often  been  noted  that,  in  theatres  where 
candy  is  sold  during  intermission,  'going  out  to  see  a 
man'  does  not  prevail  to  anything  like  the  extent  it 

84 


ALCOHOL  AND  CANDY  85 

does  in  other  theatres  where  no  candy  selling  is  per- 
mitted/' 

Truly  an  easy  "cure"  for  the  "boozer":— " Lots  of 
molasses  on  his  wheat  cakes  at  breakfast;"  and  candy, 
loads  of  it,  when  he  attends  the  theatre  in  the  even- 
ing. We  wonder  if  someone  will  discover  as  easy  a 
cure  for  the  morphine,  cocaine  and  heroin  habits ! 

And  our  erudite  editor  believes  that  the  liquor  men 
long  ago  discovered  that  benign  effect  of  sweets  (How 
could  such  "defectives"  discover  anything!)  ;  for,  he 
adds:  "It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  free-lunch 
counters,  run  in  connection  with  bars,  furnish  every 
imaginable  thing  but  sweets.  .  .  .  The  proprietors 
know  their  business.  The  more  sugar  and  sweets  a 
man  takes  at  a  meal,  the  less  alcohol  he  wants.  Con- 
versely, nearly  every  drinking  man  will  tell  you  that 
he  has  lost  his  taste  for  sweets.  The  more  candy  a 
nation  consumes,  the  less  alcohol  it  imbibes." — And 
we  had  always  thought  that  candy  was  for  women 
and  children! 

Now,  if  a  man  accustomed  to  alcohol,  when  sud- 
denly deprived  of  it,  craves  candy,  there  is  a  reason. 
Or,  conversely,  if  the  eating  of  candy  lessens  the  de- 
sire for  alcohol,  there  is  still  a  reason.  What  is  it? 

A  truth,  which  I  have  failed,  after  diligent  search, 
to  find  in  prohibition  literature,  is  that  every  particle 
of  sugar  taken  into  the  human  stomach  is  changed  into 
alcohol,  carbonic  acid  and  water,  by  the  digestive  fer- 
ments. And  all  carbohydrates,  such  as,  potatoes, 
bread,  macaroni,  rice,  cereals,  peas,  kidney  and  lima 
beans,  lentils,  Boston  baked  beans,  pastries  and  the 


86     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

farinaceous  puddings,  are,  likewise,  after  their  inges- 
tion,  changed,  within  the  bodily  economy,  into  alcohol, 
carbonic  acid  and  water.  In  the  case  of  carbohy- 
drates (starches),  however,  the  starch  is  changed  by 
diastase  into  sugar,  before  it  becomes  alcohol,  etc. 

Thus  alcohol,  so  far  from  being  a  poison  produced 
only  by  the  diabolical  machinations  of  man,  is  pro- 
duced constantly  by  Nature  herself,  and  is,  therefore, 
a  normal  constituent  of  the  human  economy. 

Again,  plant  physiologists  affirm  that  alcohol  is 
found  in  plants  as  well  as  in  human  tissues.  The  in- 
tracellular  respiration  of  the  plant  acts  upon  its  car- 
bohydrates to  form  alcohol ;  or,  more  simply,  the  ordi- 
nary metabolism  of  the  plant  necessitates  the  forma- 
tion of  alcohol  from  the  sugar  contained  in  its  fibre. 

Now,  what  are  we  to  infer  from  all  this  ?  And  why 
do  not  school  girls,  who  consume  their  candy  by  the 
pound  rather  than  by  the  piece,  become  intoxicated 
with  alcohol,  although  they  may  never  have  even 
smelled  of  that  "terrific"  poison? 

The  answer  to  the  latter  question  is,  that  alcohol  is 
very  volatile,  and  has  also  a  strong  affinity  for  oxygen. 
So,  of  the  comparatively  small  amount,  which  would 
be  formed  from  the  candy,  what  was  not  given  off  by 
the  lungs  and  skin,  would  be  quickly  burned  up,  or 
oxidized,  almost  completely  within  the  body,  with  no 
ill  effects. 

To  answer  the  first  question:  We  may  reasonably 
infer  that  candy  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  more  or  less 
satisfactory  substitute  for  alcohol,  especially  for  the 
moderate  drinker.  I  am  very  sceptical,  however,  that 


ALCOHOL  AND  CANDY  87 

a  confirmed  toper  would  exchange  his  successive  diur- 
nal drams  for  any  quantity  of  molasses,  or  of  candy. 
It  looks,  too,  very  much  as  though  alcohol  were  a 
bodily  necessity,  seeing  that,  when  it  is  not  supplied, 
the  body  craves  substances  (starch  and  sugar)  from 
which  it  can  manufacture  alcohol. 

Personally  I  believe  candy-eating  to  be  infinitely 
worse  than  moderate  drinking ;  one  reason  being  that 
it  is  very  hard  to  eat  sweets  in  moderation.  The 
temptation,  when  one  eats  candy,  is  always  to  take 
1 '  just  one  piece  more ' ' ;  and  too  much  sugar  soon  pro- 
duces fermentation  and  hyperacidity. 

Finally,  while  a  mild  alcoholic  drink  will  usually 
increase  the  appetite,  candy  and  "soft"  drinks  will 
quickly  destroy  it. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ALCOHOL   AND   WAR 

THE  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe,  which  is 
alleged  to  have  begun  from  the  publication  of  von 
Bunge's  Die  Alkoholfrage,  in  1886,  was  given  a  tre- 
mendous impetus  at  the  outbreak  of  the  general  Euro- 
pean war  in  1914. — Why? 

Were  the  dynasties,  limited  monarchies,  republics, 
and  governments  generally  represented,  especially  in- 
terested in  the  welfare  of  their  units,  or  were  they 
perchance  more  vitally  interested  in  their  own  royal 
safety  ?  Let  us  see. 

Alcoholic  beverages  are,  in  a  measure,  luxuries; 
and  all  luxuries  can  be  dispensed  with.  Again,  alco- 
hol, especially  in  the  form  of  ale,  is  both  a  nutrient  in 
itself,  and  an  aid  to  the  assimilation  of  foods  in  gen- 
eral. It  tends,  therefore,  to  increase  weight;  more- 
over, alcohol,  being  a  nerve  sedative,  promotes  good 
nature  and  satisfaction  with  the  life  ordinary. 

On  the  other  hand,  alcohol  hardly  creates  a  crav- 
ing for  hard  physical  exercise ;  nor  does  it  foster  bel- 
ligerency, so  desirable  in  war  times — unless,  of  course, 
it  be  used  to  excess.  In  short,  alcohol  agrees  better 
with  the  comfort  of  the  individual,  than  with  the  am- 
bitious designs  of  the  government  which  intends  to  use 
him  to  promote  its  cause. 

88 


ALCOHOL  AND  WAR  89 

Now  the  Powers,  when  confronted  by  grim  War, 
find  it  difficult  to  gather  in  recruits  from  among  their 
stout,  good-natured  and  easy-going  subjects.  The 
Powers,  unlike  Cassius,  prefer  men  who  are  lean,  hun- 
gry— who,  in  fact,  would  rather  fight  than  eat. 

Hence  the  unanimous  shout  of  all  the  belligerent 
nations  was:  "Down  with  alcohol  and  luxury,  and 
up  with  pugnacity  and  individual  sacrifice !  >! 

And  so,  Anti-alcoholism  was  preached  to  the  masses 
to  induce  them  to  become  of  the  stuff  of  which  sol- 
diers, according  to  the  governmental  idea,  are  made. 
After  they  had  enlisted,  however,  and  had  been  con- 
siderately placed  in  the  trenches  alcohol  was  allowed 
them  in  goodly  amounts. 

According  to  the  British  Medical  Journal  two  and 
one-half  ounces  of  rum  are  issued  to  each  man  in  the 
British  army  twice  a  week.  For  men  in  the  trenches, 
three  ounces,  twice  a  week,  under  ordinary  weather 
conditions,  and,  in  bad  weather,  two  and  one-half 
ounces,  daily,  are  allowed.  The  regular  ration  of  two 
and  one-half  ounces  is  estimated  to  contain  25.5  grams 
of  alcohol. 

The  French  soldier  receives,  daily,  fifty  grams  of 
rum,  containing  20  grams  of  alcohol. 

The  German  soldier  is  allowed  1,793  grams  of  beer 
and  20  grams  of  brandy  a  day.  The  beer,  which  is  of 
the  ordinary  lager  variety,  has  a  low  alcohol  content 
of  about  3.5  per  cent. ;  yet  this  quantity  would  amount 
to  70.7  grams  of  alcohol  a  day. 

Austrian  soldiers  are  given  0.5  of  a  liter  of  wine 
daily,  equivalent  to  40  grams  of  alcohol. 


90     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Sir  Victor  Horsley  informs  us  (Alcohol  and  the 
Human  Body,  p.  310),  that,  in  the  present  war: 

"  ( 1 )  Ordinary  canteens  for  the  sale  of  alcoholic 
liquors  are  allowed  in  the  camps.  (Although  it  was 
stated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  by  Mr.  Tennant,  that 
spirits  would  not  be  sold  to  the  men  in  France.) 

"  (2)  Certain  powers  under  martial  law  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  Commanders  to  put  local  public  houses 
'out  of  bounds/  but  are  sparingly  used. 

"  (3)  Although  abroad,  i.  e.,  in  France,  certain  com- 
manding officers  put  the  local  drink  shops  'out  of 
bounds';  nevertheless,  rum,  in  a  daily  ration  of  2% 
ounces  (5  tablespoonfuls),  is  issued  to  all  the  troops/7 

In  military  hospitals,  the  surgeons  use  alcohol  when 
necessary,  despite  the  bitter  denunciations  against  it. 

It  may  now  pertinently  be  asked,  why  the  incon-' 
sistency  of  exhorting  the  common  people  not  to  drink, 
and  of  then  furnishing  drink  to  those  same  common 
people  after  they  have  become  soldiers? 

One  reason  might  be,  that  if  the  masses  be  given 
more  drink  in  service  than  out  of  service,  they  would 
be  encouraged  to  enlist ;  and  another  reason  is :  Sol- 
diers have  to  endure  the  rigors,  exposures,  and  almost 
insupportable  fatigues  of  trench-life,  often  with  in- 
sufficient food;  the  governing  bodies  know  that,  and 
also  that  alcohol  will  enable  many  to  withstand  those 
hardships,  who,  otherwise,  would  succumb. 

Hence,  while  all  the  Powers  begrudge  alcohol  to 
their  non-combatants,  they  allow  it  to  their  soldiers. 

Experiments  have  been  tried  to  prove  whether 
sharpshooters  were  made  still  sharper,  or  worse, 


ALCOHOL  AND  WAR  91 

shooters  by  alcohol.  The  result  of  the  tests  showed, 
according  to  the  anti-alcoholists,  that  there  was  some 
lowering  of  the  marksmen's  efficiency. 

But  that  outcome  was  not  surprising.  Healthy  men, 
and  soldiers  are  supposed  to  be  such,  have  steady 
hands  and  good  eyes.  Now,  if  such  men,  needing  no 
stimulant,  are  given  one,  there  will  be  some  effect ;  and 
that  effect  can  be  only  to  unsteady  them,  seeing  that, 
being  already  perfectly  steady,  they  can  not  be  made 
more  steady  by  stimulation. 

On  the  other  hand,  were  a  marksman  in  an  abnor- 
mal condition — unsteadied  say,  by  a  recent  debauch — 
alcohol  would,  in  his  case,  have  a  steadying,  rather 
than  an  unsteadying  effect,  and  thus  make  him  shoot 
better. 

The  moral  of  the  above  is :  Do  not  drink  at  any  old 
time,  but  only  when  you  need  a  drink.  It  requires  a 
mere  modicum  of  intelligence  to  refrain  from  issuing 
rum  rations  at  a  time  when  men  need  their  eyes  to  be 
quickest,  their  hands  steadiest,  and  their  wits  most 
alert. 

But  because  alcohol  should  not  be  given  to  the 
soldier  just  before  he  engages  with  the  enemy,  does 
not  say  that  alcohol  should  never  be  given  to  the 
soldier. 

Alcohol  lessens  tension,  deadens  the  sense  of  fatigue, 
and  partialy  dulls  the  senses  that  they  may  rest,  and 
become  ultimately  refreshed. 

Hence,  after  the  engagement,  when  the  soldier's 
nerves  have  almost  cracked  under  the  strain,  and  he  is 
' '  all  in, ' '  is  the  time  to  give  him  alcohol.  At  such  a 


92      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

time,  alcohol  does  the  most  good ;  for,  then  it  will  be 
most  thoroughy  oxidized  and  utilized  to  refresh  the 
body.  Moreover,  when  the  soldier  is  exhausted,  he 
can  take  a  large  quantity  of  alcohol,  without  becoming 
intoxicated;  because  he  needs  it. 

There  are  times  to  drink,  and  there  are  times  not  to 
drink;  just  as  there  are  times  to  eat,  to  relax,  and  to 
sleep,  and  times  to  be  extraordinarily  wide  awake. 

Although  sleep  reduces  efficiency  to  zero;  yet  sleep 
is  valuable.  Alcohol  acts  like  sleep,  though  in  less 
degree;  for,  by  relieving  tension,  it  conduces  to  both 
physical  and  mental  restoration. 

But  alcohol,  in  large  amount,  and  when  not  needed, 
may  inflame  the  senses,  deaden  the  idea  of  danger  to 
recklessness,  and  awaken  the  brute  instincts,  usually 
subconscious  in  the  minds  of  men. 

Those  extreme  effects  of  alcohol  have  been  and  are 
still  deliberately  produced  by  some  commanders,  be- 
fore ordering  a  bayonet  change.  In  the  hand  to  hand 
conflict,  when  men  strive  to  kill  by  shooting,  stabbing, 
and  slashing,  alcohol  has  been  not  infrequently  used 
to  goad  men  to  fight  with  insane  fury  and  demoniacal 
strength. 

The  late  Lords  Kitchener  and  Roberts,  however, 
were  sternly  opposed  to  alcohol  being  used  in  the 
army  at  all;  their  reason  being  that,  among  large 
bodies  of  men,  it  is  difficult  to  limit  precisely  the 
amount  of  drinking. 

In  war  time,  there  comes  into  the  army  a  great 
influx  of  volunteers,  many  of  whom  drink  more  or  less. 
Those  who  drink  more,  that  is  excessively,  are  not 


ALCOHOL  AND  WAR  93 

so  efficient  as  those  who  drink  less,  or  not  at  all.  It  is 
therefore  natural  that,  in  time  of  war,  which  is  a  time 
also  of  social  stress,  both  soldiers  and  civilians  should 
be  exhorted  to  remain  temperate.  But  the  term  ' 'tem- 
perate" is  elastic;  hence,  total  abstinence  is  favored 
as  the  safest  course. 

Once  allow  a  heterogeneous  mass  of  soldiers  to  drink 
moderately;  and  some  will  inevitably  drink  immod- 
erately— their  own  portions,  and  the  portions  of  others 
who  are  more  temperate. 

Undoubtedly,  immoderate  drinking,  by  multiplying 
the  wanton  atrocities,  adds  to  the  horrors  of  war. 
When  an  invading  army  finds  drink  easily  accessible, 
the  danger  to  conquered  civilians  is  always  greater; 
and  more  rapes,  robberies,  and  brutal  mutilations 
occur,  than  when  the  soldiers  remain  sober. 

We  come  now  to  the  chief  reason  for  the  bleeding 
nations  of  Europe's  composite  cry:  "Away  with 
Alcohol!  " 

It  is  economic.  In  1913,  there  were  1,932,321  acres 
of  land  in  the  United  Kingdom  (Great  Britain)  under 
barley  cultivation;  producing  65,600,000  bushels  of 
barley.  That  year,  22,000,000  cwts.  of  foreign  barley 
were  imported. 

Now,  it  takes  about  3%  pounds  of  barley  to  make 
one  gallon  of  ale,  containing  only  a  half-pound  of 
solid  nutrient  matter. — A  rather  expensive  use  of 
barley. 

Other  substances  used  by  the  brewers,  according  to 
the  evidence  given  before  the  Departmental  Commit- 
tee on  Beer  Materials,  are :  Malt,  corn,  gelatine,  mo- 


94     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

lasses,  raw  sugar,  cane  sugar,  honey,  dextrine,  black 
malt  sugar,  hops,  etc. 

The  distillers  prepare  malt  whiskey,  by  fermenta- 
tion from  malt  and  yeast.  In  making  distilled  liquors, 
such  as  whiskey,  gin,  or  l '  Schnapps, ' '  the  starch  is  ob- 
tained from  rye,  maize,  or  oats,  and  largely  from  po- 
tatoes. 

Vodka,  the  strong  drink  interdicted  in  Russia 
shortly  after  that  Empire  had  declared  war  against 
Germany,  was  made  originally  in  pot-stills  of  rye, 
with  the  addition  of  20  per  cent,  of  barley  malt  for 
saccharification.  But,  at  the  time  its  manufacture 
was  forbidden  in  Russia,  it  was  being  made  from  po- 
tatoes, maize,  and  green  rye  malt. 

Moreover,  the  public  manifesto  against  alcohol,  in 
England,  in  December,  1916,  states  that  alcohol,  dur- 
ing the  war,  has  monopolized  between  60,000,000  and 
70,000,000  cubic  feet  of  space  on  merchant  ships; 
while  the  freightage  of  the  cargoes  carried  for  the 
drink  trade,  by  British  war-time  vessels,  has  exceeded 
2,500,000  tons.  Besides,  within  twenty  months,  the 
manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages  has  consumed  over 
2,500,000  tons  of  food,  with  sugar  sufficient  to  last 
the  nation  for  eighty  days ;  thus  using  up  more  sugar 
than  the  entire  army  uses  in  many  months. 

Alcohol,  according  to  the  manifesto,  also  wastes 
financial  strength ;  1,500,000,000  dollars  having  been 
spent  by  British  subjects  on  alcohol  in  twenty  months. 

Finally,  the  manifesto  complains,  alcohol  diverts 
the  nation's  strength,  by  using  500,000  workers, 
1,000,000  acres  of  land,  and  1,500,000  tons  of  coal  in 


ALCOHOL  AND  WAR  95 

a  year;  and,  since  the  war  began,  it  has  involved  the 
lifting  and  handling,  on  road  and  rail,  of  a  weight 
equal  to  50,000,000  tons. 

Now,  keeping  the  foregoing  facts  in  mind,  and  con- 
sidering the  economic  straits,  which  all  the  warring 
nations  confess  they  are  in,  can  we  wonder  that,  in 
their  desperation,  they  exhort  their  people  at  least  to 
curtail  their  consumption  of  alcohol? 

The  European  nations  need  their  barley,  malt,  corn, 
rye,  oats,  rice,  potatoes,  sugar,  etc.,  to  feed  their  popu- 
lations; and  they  recognize  the  economic  mistake  of 
permitting  such  enormous  quantities  of  valuable  foods 
to  be  made  into  malt  and  spirituous  liquors. 

In  Germany,  at  the  present  time,  potatoes  are 
scarce,  as  are  sugar,  flour  and  other  food-stuffs ;  and, 
recently,  in  England,  and  later,  in  France,  "sugar 
cards"  were  issued  to  limit  the  consumption  of  that 
indispensable  commodity. 

Furthermore,  the  warring  nations  need  all  the 
space  on  ships  they  can  get,  to  transport  foods  and 
other  necessities ;  they  need  their  coal  for  their  muni- 
tion factories,  and  their  men,  who  are  not  fighting,  to 
work  in  them;  and,  last,  but  not  least,  they  need  the 
money  men  spend  on  their  pleasures,  for  their  enor- 
mous expenditures  in  carrying  on  the  war. 

All  which  moves  me  to  suspect  that  the  recent 
diatribes  against  the  Demon,  Alcohol,  depicted  horri- 
bly as  an  insidious  poison  slowly  but  surely  destroying 
the  nerves,  muscles,  and  even  the  bones  of  the  human 
race,  are  not  quite  sincere. 

The  whole  truth  might  be — in   Europe:     Do  not 


96     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

drink  alcohol.  It  consumes,  not  you,  but  more  food, 
space,  time  and  money  than  we  can  really  afford  just 
now. 

Nevertheless,  so  necessary  is  alcohol  considered,  that 
not  one  of  the  European  nations,  after  nearly  four 
years  of  war,  has  as  yet  prohibited  the  manu- 
facture of  alcoholic  drinks,  excepting  vodka  and  ab- 
sinthe, long  recognized  as  being  especially  destructive, 
owing  to  their  excessively  high  alcoholic  content. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

ALCOHOL  IN   THE   TROPICS 

"IT  has  been  clearly  shown  that,  in  the  tropics, 
abstinent  soldiers  are  healthier  than  others." 

That  is  the  bald  assertion  of  Ernest  Gordon  (The 
Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe).  Is  it  true? 
Mr.  Gordon  does  not  prove  it;  nor  does  he  offer  the 
slightest  evidence  to  support  his  statement.  When, 
where,  and  by  whom,  has  it  been  "clearly  shown  that, 
in  the  tropics,  abstinent  soldiers  are  healthier  than 
others?" 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  mere  declarations  of  opinion, 
involving,  as  they  may,  strong  personal  prejudices, 
are  almost  valueless. 

The  late  Lieut.  Colonel  Charles  E.  Woodruff,  M.  D., 
in  his  classical,  Medical  Ethnology,  states,  as  the  re- 
sult of  his  prolonged  observations  in  the  Philippines, 
that  those  who  drink  alcoholic  beverages  in  the  tropics 
enjoy  better  health  than  those  who  do  not — an  opinion 
from  first-hand  experience  directly  contrary  to  that 
of  Mr.  Ernest  Gordon. 

A  reviewer  of  Dr.  Woodruff's  book,  writing  in  the 
Lancet  for  June  10,  1916,  an  English  publication, 
professes  great  astonishment  at  such  a  conclusion 
coming  from  so  eminent  a  source. 

Whereupon,  Dr.  F.  Lucas  Benham,  of  Exeter,  South 
97 


98      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Australia,  writes  a  spirited  letter  in  defense  of  Colo- 
nel Woodruff,  which  was  published  in  the  Lancet  for 
September  23,  1916. 

Dr.  Benham  says:  "Your  reviewer  speaks  of  the 
author's  [Colonel  Woodruff's]  surprising  conclusion 
that  those  who  drink  alcohol  in  the  tropics  enjoy  bet- 
ter health  than  abstainers.  I  can  not  see  anything 
surprising  in  this.  I  should  rather  be  surprised,  if 
the  contrary  were  maintained.  It  is,  as  in  other  cli- 
mates, a  matter  of  quote,  quantum,  and  quando.  I 
should  have  thought  that  there  was  plenty  of  evidence 
in  print  of  the  wholesomeness  of  alcoholic  beverages 
everywhere.  To  give  a  single  instance  of  an  active 
hard-working  man  in  tropical  Africa,  let  me  refer 
your  reviewer  to  Sutherland's  Adventures  of  an  Ele- 
phant Hunter,  p.  169.  I  think  he  will  admit  that 
there  are,  at  any  rate,  exceptions  to  his  own  views. 

* '  Nowadays,  when  there  is  so  much  bigoted  antago- 
nism to  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks,  and  it  is  often 
looked  upon  as  a  virtue  to  abstain,  it  is  well  to  take 
broader  views  and  recognize  the  beneficence  of  their 
action,  and  to  encourage  the  moderate  and  judicious 
use  of  them. 

"What  would  the  British  nation  have  been  without 
beer  and  wine,  and  what  would  it  sink  to  if  it  gave 
them  up  entirely?" 

Not  having  in  my  possession  the  Adventures  of  an 
Elephant  Hunter,  I  procured  the  book,  turned  to 
page  169,  and  read  the  following: 

"In  the  evening,  when  I  have  finished  my  day's 
work  and  bathed,  I  always  indulge  in  a  stiff  whisky 


ALCOHOL  IN  THE  TROPICS  99 

and  soda;  with  dinner,  I  regularly  consume  half  a 
bottle  of  port  wine  (it  really  is  port  wine),  and  ere 
retiring  to  bed  another  strong  peg  or  two  of  whisky. 
For  a  few  months'  hunting,  it  is  quite  immaterial 
what  one  eats  or  drinks,  but  I  find  that,  to  endure 
month  in  month  out,  year  in  year  out,  the  arduous 
work  and  strain  of  elephant  hunting,  in  a  hot  and 
enervating  climate,  a  considerable  quantity  of  alcohol 
is  absolutely  essential  to  my  physical  well-being,  and 
seems  to  help  in  the  assimilation  of  my  food,  and  give 
me  refreshing  sleep  at  night. 

U0f  course,  during  actual  work,  and  in  the  heat 
of  the  day,  alcohol  is  certainly  prejudicial,  and  when 
in  a  temperate  climate  I  feel  little  or  no  desire  for 
stimulants  in  any  shape  or  form. 

"  After  years  of  this  dietary  and  hard  life,  I  feel 
in  perfect  physical  condition,  and  a  recent  medical 
examination  revealed  that  all  my  organs  were  sound 
and  healthy." 

The  foregoing  will,  no  doubt,  be  poor  reading  for 
Prohibitionists,  and,  more  especially,  for  the  sincere 
ones. 

Yet  Mr.  Sutherland's  personal  experience  with  al- 
cohol is  most  interesting,  and  should  give  pause  to 
those  who  would  deprive  all  of  alcohol  in  any  form. 

Mr.  Sutherland's  assertion  that  he  found  alcohol  to 
be  "absolutely  essential  to  his  physical  well-being" 
in  the  hot  and  enervating  climate  of  Africa,  while  not 
proving  that  everyone  would  experience  the  same  need 
in  that  climate,  does  prove  that  one  man  experienced 
that  need  very  decidedly;  and  that,  as  he  differed  in 


100      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

no  essential  way  from  other  normal  men,  the  infer- 
ence seems  not  illogical  that  others,  were  they  living 
in  the  same  environment,  and  under  the  same  condi- 
tions, would  derive  like  benefits  from  the  same  stimu- 
lation, though  not  necessarily  from  the  same  quantity 
of  it. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  Mr.  Sutherland  does  not 
claim  that  alcohol  increased  his  efficiency  while  work- 
ing; for  he  says:  "During  actual  work,  and  in  the 
heat  of  the  day,  alcohol  is  certainly  prejudicial/' 

In  my  chapter  on  Alcohol  and  Efficiency  I  shall 
give  the  reasons  for  that. 

That  Mr.  Sutherland  was  * '  some ' '  big-game  hunter, 
and  was  able  to  endure  a  great  amount  of  fatigue,  in 
spite,  if  not  because,  of  alcohol,  is  attested  by  the 
fact  that,  during  ten  years,  he  shot  and  killed  447  bull 
elephants,  establishing  a  world's  record. 

And  what  is  surprising  in  such  statements  about 
alcohol?  Common  sense  bears  them  out.  The  occa- 
sional abuse  of  alcohol  has  made  certain  persons  hys- 
terical over  its  temperate  use. 

Man,  mighty  as  he  is,  is  95.6  per  cent,  water;  and 
to  keep  this  amount  of  water — continually  lost  in 
perspiration,  through  the  lungs,  and  through  the 
grosser  excretions — constant,  copious  water  drinking 
is  necessary,  particularly  in  hot  climates. 

Now  few  persons  drink  enough  water.  But,  in  the 
tropics,  where  perspiration  is  profuse,  they  must,  in 
order  to  remain  healthy.  Experience  proves,  how- 
ever, that  all  human  beings  do  not  do  what  they 
should;  they  do  usually  what  they  wish  to  do.  The 


ALCOHOL  IN  THE  TROPIC 

question  is,  then,  how  can  they  be  made  to  wish  to 
drink  water? 

By  man's  ingenuity  in  rendering  water  palatable 
by  the  admixture  of  fermented  grape  juice ;  or  of  fer- 
mented barley,  malt  and  hops:  The  former  process 
giving  us  water  in  the  agreeable  form  of  champagne 
and  wines,  and  the  latter  giving  us  the  cheaper,  and 
therefore  more  widely  popular  beverages. 

Now  the  English  gallon  of  ale,  which  is  larger  than 
our  gallon,  contains  about  nine  pounds  of  water,  one- 
half  pound  of  alcohol,  from  four  to  five  ounces  of  ex- 
tractives and  salts,  from  two  to  three  ounces  of 
maltose,  and  from  one-half  to  three-quarters  ounce 
of  albuminoids. 

Hence  when  one  drinks  ale  or  beer,  or  whiskey, 
or  brandy  and  soda  (high  ball),  the  favorite  southern 
beverage,  he  is  drinking  a  great  deal  of  water,  a  little 
alcohol,  and  various  more  or  less  nourishing  sub- 
stances. 

The  entirely  arbitrary  assertion  that  the  small 
amounts  of  alcohol  contained  in  the  above  nutritious 
and  comforting  liquids,  are  injurious,  is  borne  out  by 
neither  fact  nor  observation. 

When  sugar  or  carbohydrates  (starches)  are  fer- 
mented— changed  into  alcohol — before  they  are  swal- 
lowed, our  digestive  organs  are  saved  that  much  trou- 
ble; since  every  physiologist  knows  the  fact,  already 
mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  Alcohol  and  Candy,  that 
such  sugar  and  starch  as  we  ingest  are  changed  in 
the  human  economy,  by  a  process  of  physiological 
fermentation,  into  alcohol  and  carbonic  acid,  and  that 


102    'THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

the  alcohol  thus  naturally  produced,  so  far  from  act- 
ing poisonously,  induces  no  unpleasant  reaction,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  improves  the  appetite,  assists  the  di- 
gestion, and  hastens  all  reparative  processes. 

Abstainers  are  usually  candy-eaters,  probably  be- 
cause a  part  of  their  systemic  need  is  alcohol. 

Now  it  is  apparent  that  most  persons  will  consume 
more  water  when  it  is  rendered  palatable,  than  when 
it  is  unchanged ;  and  in  hot  climates  the  consumption 
of  much  water  is  especially  desirable,  seeing  that 
water  cools  and  thins  the  blood,  thus  quickening  the 
circulation,  and  stimulating  the  kidneys,  while  at  the 
same  time,  it  lessens  their  irritation  by  diluting  their 
secretions. 

Nephritis — inflammation  of  the  kidneys — fre- 
quently attacks  soldiers  on  the  march,  when  deprived 
of  sufficient  water. 

While  the  ingestion  of  alcohol  apparently  warms 
us,  really  it  does  not.  The  sensation  of  warmth  arises 
from  the  fact  that  alcohol  sends  the  blood  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  body,  but  there  the  blood  loses  heat  by 
radiation;  so  that,  actually,  there  is  a  lowering,  in- 
stead of  a  rise,  in  the  bodily  temperature. 

Should  we  be  astonished,  therefore,  that  the  opinion 
of  so  acute  an  observer  as  Lieut.  Colonel  Charles  E. 
Woodruff,  sustained  by  others  with  tropical  experi- 
ence, should  be  that  the  drinkers  of  alcoholic  bever- 
ages in  the  south — where  such  beverages  contain  much 
water— are  healthier  than  abstainers,  particularly 
when  we  consider  that  the  latter  abstain  notoriously 
from  all  liquids,  including  aqua  pur  a? 


CHAPTER  XX 

ALCOHOL   AND   EFFICIENCY 

RECENTLY  the  Anti-Alcoholists  have  made  some 
great  discoveries,  but  the  one  over  which  they  gloat 
especially  is  .that  alcohol  lessens  efficiency. 

According  to  some  painstaking  experiments  of  Ger- 
man scientists,  the  effect  of  one  glass  of  beer  is  to 
lessen  a  man's  efficiency  by  seven  per  cent. 

" Think  of  it,  ladies,"  exclaimed  a  woman  phy- 
sician, lecturing  to  a  class  of  women  on  the  evils  of 
alcohol,  "German  scientists  have  found  that  a  single 
glass  of  beer  lessens  a  man's  efficiency  by  seven  per 
cent!"  The  doctor  then  considerately  warned  the 
maidens  to  marry,  if  possible  of  course,  100-per-cent., 
and  not  93-per-cent.  men.  And  what  a  fate  would 
be  hers  did  any  member  of  the  class  "capture"  a  de- 
generate who  perchance  had  "guzzled"  ten  beers! 
She  would  have  only  a  30  per  cent.  man. 

But  the  scientists  no  doubt  know;  so  let  us  assume 
that  their  conservative — they  are  always  conservative 
— estimate  is  correct.  Still,  we  may  reason  further 
and  discover  some  additional  truths. 

Suppose  we  should  test  the  efficiency  of  a  man  whose 
stomach  was  empty,  who,  in  fact,  was  hungry.  In 
that  condition,  most  men  are  more  or  less  nervous  and 
irritable;  and  at  such  a  time  their  reflexes  respond 

103 


104     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

to  stimulation  with  supernormal  quickness.  We  have 
proof  of  this  in  that,  when  a  man  feels  more  than 
usually  irritable,  owing  to  hunger,  mental  stress,  or 
worry,  he  can  not  endure  external  annoyances  (stimu- 
lations), such  as  noise,  trifling  interruptions,  oppo- 
sition to  his  will,  and  the  like,  with  nearly  the  same 
equanimity  which  he  would  display  ordinarily. 

Now,  after  testing  that  hungry,  and  consequently 
more  or  less  irritable  man's  efficiency  (i.  e.,  the  quick- 
ness of  his  responses  to  stimulations),  and  finding  it, 
let  us  say,  100  per  cent.,  give  him  a  hearty  meal  of 
corned-beef  and  cabbage,  boiled  potatoes,  pudding, 
and  pure  water.  Then  again  test  his  efficiency — his 
all  around  efficiency — and  it  will  be  wonderful  if  it 
has  not  been  reduced  by  20  or  25  per  cent. 

But  the  Anti-Alcoholists  maintain  that,  if  the  drink- 
ing of  one  glass  of  beer  reduces  one's  efficiency  by 
seven  per  cent.,  the  fact  is  proof  that  the  act  commits 
an  efficiency  suicide;  and  that  therefore  no  glass  of 
beer  should  be  drunk. 

All  which  illustrates  once  more  the  danger  of  the 
half-truth;  for,  should  the  reformers  append  to  their 
half-truth  the  additional  truth  that  a  good  dinner, 
without  alcohol,  would  still  further  reduce  efficiency, 
they  would,  in  order  to  remain  logical,  be  forced  to 
advise  us  not  to  eat.  All  are  aware  how  tired  and 
sleepy  one  feels  after  a  heavy  meal. 

Nor  are  alcohol  drinking  and  indulgence  in  whole- 
some food  the  only  acts  which  lessen  efficiency.  The 
fatigue  produced  by  exercise — and  exercise  is  univer- 
sally conceded  to  be  beneficial — lowers  efficiency  con- 


ALCOHOL  AND  EFFICIENCY  105 

siderably;  and  sleep,  the  prime  necessity  to  life  and 
sanity,  absolutely  annihilates  efficiency. 

Surely  the  point  is  now  plain  that  to  prove  that 
alcohol  lowers  a  man's  efficiency  does  not  prove  that 
alcohol  injures  him. 

We  shall  now  try  to  show  that  the  lowering  of  effi- 
ciency by  alcohol  is  beneficial. 

The  desire  for  alcohol,  if  not  excessive,  is  the  nor- 
mal craving  which  all  healthy  humans  have  for  some 
agent  to  give  them  surcease  from  the  cares,  troubles, 
anxieties,  and  consequent  mental  and  physical  fa- 
tigues, inseparable  from  the  struggle  for  existence. 

Americans  are  nervous  and  live  often  under  in- 
tense strain.  To  blunt  their  too  acute  sensibility, 
and  to  relax  their  supertension,  is  perhaps  the  most 
important  function  of  alcohol. 

Nervous  persons  are  nervous  because  their  tension 
is  too  high;  and  that  hypertension  makes  them  crave 
some  sedative  to  relax  it.  Deprive  such  persons  of 
alcohol,  and  there  is  little  doubt  they  would  form  some 
other  drug  habit. 

Of  course,  efficiency  is  greatest  when  one  is  keyed 
to  a  high  pitch,  just  as  the  taut  strings  of  the  violin 
vibrate  beneath  the  bow  drawn  across  them.  But  that 
condition  can  not  be  maintained  indefinitely  without 
something  giving  way.  Alcohol  relaxes  and  rests  us, 
to  prepare  for  new  and  greater  efforts  later  on. 

No  human  being  could  remain  one  hundred  per 
cent,  efficient  for  long  and  live.  Perhaps,  as  I  have 
said,  the  chief  value  of  alcohol,  indulged  in  moder- 
ately, is  that  it  relieves  tension;  and  that  effect  no 


106     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

doubt  lessens  a  certain  kind  of  efficiency,  but  only 
to  increase  it  ultimately  through  the  partial  rest.  We 
see  this  in  the  comforting  and  sedative  effect  of  a 
glass  of  ale,  or  of  beer,  or  of  Guinness'  Stout,  upon 
the  overwrought  and  overworked  mothers  of  numerous 
children. 

If  alcohol  did  not  reduce  efficiency— procure  rest- 
no  one  would  want  it ;  and,  to  retain  any  efficiency  at 
all,  it  is  necessary  regularly  to  reduce  it,  to  relax ; 
thus  giving  Nature  a  chance  to  restore  the  normal 
quantity  of  it.  Efficiency  is  nothing  more  than  energy 
intelligently  directed;  and,  as  energy,  being  continu- 
ally expended,  can  not  remain  constant,  so,  efficiency, 
is  reduced,  restored,  again  reduced,  and  again  re- 
stored, and  so  on. 

One  reason  that  Americans  wear  out  quickly  and 
die  young  is  that  they  do  not  relax  often  enough  and 
long  enough. 

Test  a  man's  muscular  response  to  stimulation  when 
his  muscles,  from  recent  use,  are  hot  with  blood. 
Then  let  his  muscles  relax  thoroughly,  and  test  them 
again,  and  their  efficiency  will  be  found  to  be  reduced. 
Nevertheless,  their  relaxation  was  physiologically  de- 
sirable ;  for  no  one  would  argue  that  muscles  in  a  state 
of  tension  could  remain  highly  effective  for  an  indefi- 
nite time. 

Now  the  brain  requires  rest,  as  do  the  muscles; 
and,  for  that  reason,  alcohol,  when  moderately  used, 
is  beneficial.  By  relaxing  cerebral  as  well  as  somatic 
tension,  alcohol  rests  alike  brain  and  body. 

Contrast  German  stolidity  and  efficiency  with  Amer- 


ALCOHOL  AND  EFFICIENCY  107 

ican  nervousness  and  exhaustion.  Consider  also  that 
German  children  do  not  make  such  nervous  wrecks 
of  their  mothers,  as  do  many  American  children. 
The  Germans  worry  less  than  the  Americans.  Is  it 
that  German  beer  quiets  German  worry? 

I  tried  the  following  interesting  experiment  with 
an  American  mother  who  was  near  nervous  prostra- 
tion through  continual  worrying  about  her  children. 
I  suggested  that  if  she  drank  a  moderate  amount  of 
ale,  it  would  increase  her  appetite,  improve  her  rather 
poor  digestion,  and,  best  of  all,  quiet  her  nerves,  so 
that  she  would  stop  worrying  uselessly.  She  followed 
my  advice,  and  it  worked  well.  She  grew  stouter  and 
more  contented,  while  her  children's  health  also  im- 
proved, as  she  quit  tormenting  them  as  well  as  her- 
self. 

Professor  Kassowitz  describes  an  experiment  with  a 
dog.  This  dog,  on  a  pure  sugar  ration,  ran  24  kilo- 
metres daily  in  a  machine  called  a  running  drum. 
When  one-third  of  the  sugar  ration  was  replaced  by 
alcohol,  of  the  same  number  of  calories,  the  dog  did 
one-fourth  less  work.  The  carbonic  acid  output  of 
the  dog  was  also  less  on  the  alcohol  days. 

Now,  since  muscular  activity  and  the  elimination 
of  carbon  dioxide  are  always  in  ratio,  the  dog,  unde- 
niably, worked  less  on  the  days  he  not  only  looked  at 
but  lapped  up  the  alcohol.  Certainly  the  poor  beast, 
partially  intoxicated,  and  made  more  or  less  lethargic 
by  his  unusual  indulgence,  soldiered  at  his  work. 

But  what  of  it?  If  some  human  beings  work  too 
hard,  and  if  alcohol  would  make  them  work  less,  then 


108     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

alcohol  would  do  those  who  worked  too  hard  good. 

Again,  if  scientists  can  not  tell  us  positively 
whether  it  is  the  water,  or  the  hops,  or  the  alcohol,  in 
the  beer — or  the  fusel  oil,  or  the  alcohol,  in  the 
whiskey,  which  cuts  short  our  youthful  careers,  we 
would  better  continue  to  take  a  chance  with  some  one 
of  those  popular  palate  pacifiers,  alcohol  and  all,  as 
has  been  from  time  immemorial  our  custom. 

As  showing  how  vague  is  the  notion  in  the  minds  of 
scientists  as  to  just  what  injures  us  in  any  particular 
drink,  I  quote  the  following  from  Alcohol  and  the 
Human  Body,  page  133 :  ' '  In  the  case  of  people  who 
suffer  from  gout,  certain  individuals  say  perfectly 
truly  that  if  they  take  a  small  quantity  of  a  particular 
kind  of  alcoholic  drink,  champagne,  for  example,  it 
will  invariably  produce  an  attack;  whereas  they  can 
take  another  kind  [form]  of  alcohol  with  apparent 
impunity." 

To  conclude  this  chapter,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of 
quoting  the  following  trenchant  statement  of  Pro- 
fessor C.  E.  A.  Winslow,  of  Yale  University: 

"Passing  from  actual  damage  [of  alcohol]  to  the 
question  of  lowered  efficiency,  we  must  take  into  ac- 
count the  laboratory  studies  of  Kraepelin,  Vogt, 
Aschaffenberg,  and  others,  and  the  remarkably  clear 
and  convincing  investigations  first  reported  by  Dr. 
Benedict. 

"There  were  persons  who  had  lived  long  lives  and 
done  good  work,  yet  who  had  consumed  enormous 
amounts  of  alcohol.  But  if  a  responsible  man  had 
anything  important  to  do,  he  did  not  take  alcohol 


ALCOHOL  AND  EFFICIENCY  109 

before  doing  it.  A  surgeon  about  to  perform  a  deli- 
cate operation  did  not  take  alcohol  before  entering 
the  operating  room.  No  man  about  to  undertake  se- 
vere, exact  mental  work  would  take  a  drink  of  whiskey 
beforehand.  When  they  wanted  cool,  concentrated 
energy,  they  laid  drink  aside." 

I  agree  with  the  above;  but  to  say  that  alcohol 
should  not  be  taken  just  before  important  or  delicate 
work,  is  saying  nothing  against  alcohol,  or  nothing 
that  is  not  already  known.  Alcohol  is  usually  best 
taken  when  the  day's  work  is  completed,  although  not 
a  few  authors  find  that  a  certain  amount  of  it  serves 
to  stimulate  their  creative  faculties. 

Each  man,  however,  should  be  a  law  unto  himself. 
No  sensible  person  drinks  alcohol  while  working,  if 
he  finds  it  interferes  with  his  work;  and,  strangely 
enough,  some  wisely  refrain,  without  the  advice  of 
scientists. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT 

ALCOHOL  is  a  stimulant  as  well  as  a  sedative.  In 
large  doses  it  is  a  narcotic.  In  moderate  amount  its 
effects  are  sedative  upon  some  human  functions,  and 
stimulative  upon  others.  It  is  distinctly  a  heart  stim- 
ulant and  a  cerebral  vaso-dilator ;  an  anaemic  head- 
ache, caused  by  too  little  blood  in  the  brain,  being  in- 
stantly relieved  by  alcohol.  The  experiments  of  V.  I. 
Berezin  (Roussky  Vratch)  upon  carp  and  rabbits 
proved  that  alcohol  dilates  the  blood-vessels  in  the 
brain. 

It  has  been  observed  that  some  lecturers,  after  they 
had  partaken  moderately  of  alcohol,  could  speak  bet- 
ter, were  wittier,  and  appeared  at  better  advantage, 
than  when  they  had  not  indulged.  Here,  in  my  view, 
is  the  explanation  of  that  effect  which,  to  those  who 
insist  that  alcohol  in  any  amount  is  a  narcotic,  seems 
paradoxical : 

There  are  orators,  particularly  those  of  " nervous" 
temperament,  who,  on  the  important  occasion  of  a 
public  speech,  suffer  greatly  from  diffidence.  Now, 
nervousness,  inhibiting,  as  it  does,  forceful  expression, 
is  most  undesirable  in  a  public  speaker.  Indeed,, 
when  the  nervousness  is  extreme,  it  produces  what 
actors  call  "stage  fright/'  when  all  ideas  disappear, 

110 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  111 

the  tongue  is  tied,  and  a  "break  down"  ends  the 
agony. 

Alcohol  allays  that  nervousness  as  nothing  else  can. 
It  acts  by  inhibiting  the  inhibitors  of  free  speech; 
and,  more,  it  infuses  into  the  orator  just  the  dash  of 
recklessness  he  needs  for  the  courage  of  his  convictions. 
In  other  words,  alcohol,  by  inhibiting  the  minor 
cerebral  functions,  prevents  distracting  thoughts  ob- 
truding upon  the  main  current  of  consciousness,  thus 
favoring  concentration.  The  speaker,  then,  unham- 
pered by  disturbing  fears,  appears  at  his  best. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  immoderately  used,  the 
effects  of  alcohol  are  no  longer  confined  to  the  inhi- 
bition of  ideas  interfering  with  the  main  idea,  but  in- 
clude an  inhibition  of  the  creative  powers,  hitherto 
unaffected.  The  result  in  such  cases  is  dullness,  in- 
coherency,  and  sometimes  complete  disability.  In 
fine,  while  alcohol  in  moderation  may  help  the  speaker 
much,  in  excess,  it  may  stupefy  him. 

The  foregoing  may  explain  also  why  a  moderate 
quantity  of  alcohol  conduces  to  sociability  and  breaks 
down  constraint:  It  modifies  manvaise  honte. 

Eeally,  the  question  whether  alcohol  is  a  stimulant, 
a  sedative,  or  a  narcotic  is  not  crucial.  Its  devotees 
have  always  maintained  it  a  stimulant,  while  its  de- 
tractors have  tried  in  all  ways  to  combat  that  u  dan- 
gerous claim"  in  its  favor.  Indeed,  the  most  elab- 
orate experiments  have  been  made,  countless  authori- 
ties have  been  cited,  and  all  resources  of  argument 
have  been  exhausted,  to  prove  that  alcohol  is  not  a 
stimulant. 


112     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Now  alcohol  is  a  stimulant;  but  if  it  were  not,  it 
would  not  be  disgraced. 

All  irritants  are  stimulants;  because  stimulation  is 
only  a  degree  of  irritation.  The  prick  of  a  pin  stimu- 
lates, though  the  stimulus  is  not  exactly  healthy.  The 
disease  known  as  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  while  acting 
generally  as  a  depressant,  stimulates  certain  organs, 
such  as  the  sympathetic  nervous  system,  and  the 
adrenal  and  thyroid  glands.  In  diabetes,  the  sugar 
laden  blood  excites  and  greatly  stimulates  the  func- 
tion of  the  kidneys ;  but  who  would  wish  that  disease 
to  promote  renal  health? 

Toxins  (poisons)  produce  a  fever;  and  fever  is  the 
effect  of  decided  stimulation.  Even  depressive  emo- 
tional states  stimulate  the  sympathetic  nervous  sys- 
tem, sometimes  so  strongly  as  to  result  in  a  rise  of  the 
temperature  of  the  body. 

To  realize  more  clearly  the  amount  of  energy  re- 
quired to  bring  about  a  rise  in  the  bodily  tempera- 
ture, some  calculations  of  Dr.  Francis  N.  Pottenger 
are  helpful.  Dr.  Pottenger,  a  recognized  authority 
on  tuberculosis,  concluded  from  cold  calculations,  that 
an  increase  in  body  temperature  of  5  degrees  Fahren- 
heit required  an  increase  of  about  45  per  cent,  of  the 
total  body  heat  of  the  normal  individual — some  stimu- 
lation ! 

From  ordinary  observation  there  is  strong  reason 
to  believe  that,  while  alcohol  dulls  certain  brain-cen- 
tres, it  stimulates  others. 

As  we  have  lately  said,  an  orator,  or  an  after-din- 
ner speaker  will  often  speak  particularly  well  after 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  113 

having  partaken  moderately  of  alcohol,  probably  ow- 
ing to  the  dulling  of  certain  of  his  minor  cerebral 
centres  whose  activities  would  interfere  with  his  main 
and  desired  thoughts.  And  that  two-edged  effect  of 
alcohol,  namely,  that  of  stimulating  the  main,  or  cre- 
ative faculties,  and  of  obfuscating  others,  becomes 
most  interesting  when  we  consider  genius. 

Genius  connotes  a  transcendent  capacity  for  new 
and  strikingly  original  concepts.  It  is  a  divine  prin- 
ciple in  man,  is  perhaps  latent  in  all  men,  but  is  mani- 
fest in  few,  owing  to  inhibitions  or  suppressions. 
Yet  the  spark  is  there,  and  when  the  ashes  covering 
it  are  cleared  away,  it  flies  upward,  sometimes  to  blaze 
so  brilliantly  as  to  dazzle  the  world. 

That  is  genius — a  spark ;  and  who  can  say  that  alco- 
hol, by  lighting  up  the  best — the  creative,  and  repress- 
ing the  gross,  conceptions  within  us,  does  not,  in  rare 
cases,  release  that  spark?  Strictly  speaking,  of 
course,  man  can  not  create  anything;  but  he  can 
often  hit  upon  new  combinations,  make  original  in- 
ferences, and  thus  discover  new  truths. 

Do  we  know  that  Charles  Lamb,  Byron,  Goethe, 
Burns,  Coleridge,  Poe,  Ben  Jonson,  Tennyson,  Cer- 
vantes, Balzac,  Addison,  Swift,  Guy  de  Maupassant, 
and  others,  would  have  created  what  they  did,  without 
alcohol?  And  could  not  even  tuberculosis  have 
etherealized  the  conceptions  of  Bronte,  Rousseau,  Mil- 
ton, Ruskin,  Kingsley,  Locke,  Hawthorne,  Madame 
de  Stael,  Scott,  Shelley,  Keats,  and  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson? 

That  alcohol  is  not  a  stimulant  has  never  been 


114      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

proved;  that  it  is  a  stimulant,  in  certain  respects,  is 
only  what  is  patent  from  every-day  experience. 
When  an  intoxicated  man  talks  loudly,  sings,  becomes 
quarrelsome  and  aggressive,  wishes  to  fight,  or  dances, 
it  is  plain  that  some  centre  of  his  brain  has  been 
stimulated.  If  he  continues  to  drink  until  stupefied, 
he  is  narcotized  by  the  drug  which  at  first  stimulated 
him. 

But  is  not  that  true  of  many  other  substances  ?  Be- 
fore one  is  completely  etherized,  there  is  a  period 
of  excitement — stimulation.  Strychnine  powerfully 
stimulates  in  small  doses;  whereas,  in  large  doses,  it 
paralyzes.  All  drugs,  in  fact,  have  effects  varying 
with  the  amounts  administered. 

To  state  dogmatically,  however,  just  how  much 
alcohol  would  be  needed  for  stimulation,  and  how 
much  for  narcotization,  would  be  impossible;  for  the 
reason  that  an  amount  which  would  only  stimulate 
one  man  might  completely  narcotize,  or  paralyze  an- 
other. 

Again,  the  same  man's  physical  condition  at  dif- 
ferent times  would  modify  the  effects  of  identical 
quantities  of  alcohol.  If  he  were  very  ill,  and  his 
system  were  crying  out  for  aid  (stimulation),  he  could 
imbibe  a  relatively  large  amount,  without  the  least  in- 
toxication resulting;  or,  thoroughly  septic,  he  might 
take  enormous  doses,  and  not  become  drunk  in  the 
accepted  sense  of  the  term. 

To  me  it  seems  strange  that  the  Anti-Alcoholists 
fail  to  realize  that  when  they  say  that  alcohol  is  not 
a  potent  stimulant,  they  are  saying  a  great  deal  in  its 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  115 

favor;  for  had  their  efficiency  experiments  proved 
alcohol  to  be  an  exceptionally  strong  stimulant,  that 
would  have  been  a  damning  fact,  classing  alcohol  with 
cocaine  and  its  derivatives,  and  with  strychnine: 
The  latter  drugs  being,  as  we  shall  see  presently, 
potent  stimulants. 

While  alcohol,  in  moderate  quantity,  is  a  stimulant, 
it  is  not,  ordinarily,  a  powerful  one.  But  alcohol 
becomes  more  stimulating,  within  limits,  as  more  is 
used.  Thus  whiskey,  containing  a  relatively  large 
percentage  of  alcohol,  is  more  dangerous,  because  more 
likely  to  create  a  habit,  than  is  beer,  which  is  only 
slightly  alcoholic. 

To  show  still  more  strikingly  how  the  danger  in 
using  drugs  increases  directly  with  the  degree  of  their 
stimulation,  I  shall  quote  some  remarks  of  Dr.  W.  H. 
R.  Rivers  on  the  extraordinarily  stimulating  effects 
of  cocaine  upon  fatigue; — the  imminent  danger  to 
even  occasional  cocaine  users  of  contracting  the  co- 
caine habit  being  well  known. 

"Of  all  the  drugs  which  are  supposed  to  influence 
the  condition  of  fatigue,  none  has  a  greater  reputa- 
tion than  cocaine.  It  is  stated  that  the  natives  of 
South  America  are  enabled  to  perform  great  feats  of 
endurance  under  its  influence,  and  to  withstand  se- 
vere hunger  and  thirst,  owing  to  its  effect. 

"This  popular  reputation  is  not  belied  by  the  re- 
sults of  experiment.  The  fullest  work  on  the  drug 
was  published  by  Ugolino  Mosso  in  1890,  in  which 
ergographic  observations  [recorded  tests  of  the 
strength  and  endurance  of  certain  muscles]  on  him- 


116      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

self  formed  only  part  of  a  systematic  investigation 
into  the  physiological  action  of  the  drug.  Experi- 
ments on  dogs  showed  that  in  doses  of  0.0005  gramme 
per  kilogramme  of  body-weight  of  the  animal  no  ef- 
fect was  produced  on  muscular  activity;  that  0.001 
gramme  per  kilogramme  had  a  stimulating  effect ;  and 
that  doses  of  0.003  gramme  per  kilogramme  diminished 
the  amount  of  work  performed  by  the  muscle,  or 
produced  complete  paralysis;  the  paralytic  effect  be- 
ing very  sudden  when  the  dose  was  strong. 

"  Before  this  time  Aschenbrandt  had  found  that 
doses  of  0.1  gramme  cocaine  increased  the  resistance 
of  soldiers  to  fatigue ;  Freud  had  shown  that  doses  of 
0.1  to  0.15  gramme  increased  the  strength  of  contrac- 
tions with  the  dynanometer.  Mosso  found  that  a  dose 
of  0.1  gramme  taken  by  the  stomach  had  a  decided 
effect  on  the  amount  of  work  produced  by  means  of 
electrical  stimulation  of  the  muscle;  the  increase 
reaching  23  per  cent. 

"Further  observations  showed  that  the  stimulating 
effect  of  cocaine  became  even  more  decided  if  the 
muscle  was  fatigued.  After  work  had  been  done  to 
exhaustion  by  means  of  electrical  stimuli,  a  dose  of 
0.05  gramme  had  a  very  decided  effect  on  the  con- 
tractions produced  by  electrical  stimulation,  and  a 
still  more  marked  effect  on  voluntary  contractions. 

"  Mosso  also  compared  the  effect  of  the  drug  in  the 
fasting  condition  and  after  violent  and  prolonged 
exercise.  In  each  state  the  drug  had  a  most  pro- 
nounced beneficial  effect,  both  on  the  general  condition 
and  on  muscular  activity,  as  shown  by  the  ergograph 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  117 

[a  machine  for  recording  strength  tests]  ;  the  amount 
of  work  being  doubled  both  with  electrical  and  volun- 
tary contractions.  He  concluded  that  the  beneficial 
effect  is — at  any  rate  in  part — due  to  the  direct  action 
of  the  cocaine  on  the  muscle,  and  that  the  drug  is 
able  to  abolish  the  effects  of  fatigue  directly,  though 
he  does  not  suggest  any  exact  mechanism  by  which  this 
can  be  brought  about. 

"Another  work  on  cocaine  is  that  of  Benedicenti, 
who  chewed  the  leaves  of  coca,  and  found  that  in 
consequence  the  amount  of  work  with  the  ergograph 
was  not  only  doubled,  but  that  the  effect  lasted  longer 
than  that  of  other  substances  (tea,  coffee,  mate  and 
gaarana)  which  had  been  tested  under  similar  condi- 
tions/' 

"We  have  in  the  above  a  reason  for  the  taking  of 
cocaine  by  criminals  when  about  to  commit  crimes 
requiring  strength  and  nerve.  Many  outrages  against 
persons  and  property  have  been  done  by  cocaine  users, 
whose  acts  could  not  have  been  accomplished  without 
the  stimulus  of  the  drug. 

Dr.  Rivers  sums  up  the  effects  of  strychnine  upon 
man,  in  varying  minute  doses,  as  producing  "a  de- 
cided increase  [in  the  amount  of  work  done],  followed 
by  a  reaction. ' ' 

Now  contrast  the  potent  stimulations  resulting 
from  comparatively  small  doses  of  cocaine,  or  of 
strychnine,  as  proved  by  the  foregoing  experiments, 
with  the  slightly  stimulating,  and  often  relaxing  ef- 
fects of  small  doses  of  alcohol — to  be  demonstrated 
presently — and  we  shall  see  that  the  Prohibitionists' 


118     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

claim  that  alcohol  is  not  a  stimulant,  or,  at  least,  not 
a  powerful  stimulant,  is  highly  complimentary  to  the 
substance  making  the  subject  matter  of  this  book. 

Of  course,  the  more  powerful  stimulants  are,  the 
more  likely  it  is  that  their  habitual  use  will  engender 
habits  afterward  impossible  to  overcome,  and  the  more 
profoundly  injurious  are  their  effects. 

The  results  of  specific  tests,  designed  to  determine 
the  stimulating,  or  the  relaxing  effects  of  absolute 
alcohol,  in  doses  of  from  30  to  45  cubic  centimetres, 
upon  the  neuro-muscular  system  of  man,  are  well 
shown  by  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Walter  B.  James, 
reported  at  a  meeting  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences,  on  April  6,  1916. 

"In  their  data  these  average  results  showed  two 
particularly  significant  marks  of  reliability:  1. 
Similar  processes  were  similarly  affected  and  in  simi- 
lar degree ;  2,  in  general,  the  larger  dose  of  alcohol 
showed  the  greater  experimental  effect.  The  effect 
of  alcohol  was  calculated  in  all  cases  by  comparing 
the  differences  between  the  'normals  of  the  day'  and 
subsequent  periods  on  the  normal  and  on  the  alcohol 
days.  The  greatest  percentage  effect  was  found  in 
the  reflexes.  In  the  patellar  [knee]  reflex,  alcohol 
increased  the  latent  time  ten  per  cent. ;  while  it  de- 
creased the  amount  of  quadriceps  thickening  forty- 
six  per  cent.  In  the  protective  lid  reflex,  it  increased 
the  extent  of  lid  movement  nineteen  per  cent.  It  in- 
creased the  latent  time  of  the  eye  reactions  five  per 
cent.,  and  that  of  the  speech  reactions  three  per  cent. 
Memory  and  the  free  associations  were  only  slightly 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  119 

affected  [italics  mine].  Sensitivity  to  faradic  stimu- 
lation decreased  fourteen  per  cent,  after  alcohol. 
[Quite  different  from  the  doubling  of  sensitivity  after 
cocaine  administration.]  The  number  of  finger  move- 
ments decreased  nine  per  cent.,  and  the  velocity  of 
the  eye  movements  decreased  eleven  per  cent.,  as  a 
consequence  of  the  ingestion  of  alcohol. ' ' — All  demon- 
strating certain  relaxing  effects  of  alcohol. 

"Quite  in  contrast  to  the  general  depression  of  the 
neuro-muscular  processes  at  all  levels  of  the  cerebro- 
spinal  system,  was  the  effect  of  alcohol  on  the  pulse 
rate.  Under  all  experimental  conditions  alcohol  pro- 
duced a  relative  acceleration  of  the  pulse.  In  only 
a  few  cases  with  a  large  dose  did  this  relative  acceler- 
ation become  a  positive  acceleration ;  so  that  the  pulse 
rate  in  the  periods  subsequent  to  the  ingestion  of  al- 
cohol was  faster  than  during  the  normal  of  the  day; 
but  in  practically  every  instance  alcohol  prevented 
the  regular  pulse  rate  retardation  that  accompanied 
the  successive  periods  of  mental  and  physical  work 
on  normal  days. " — Demonstrating  alcohol's  stimula- 
tive effects. 

On  the  whole,  the  above  experiments  showed  more 
the  relaxing  than  the  stimulating  qualities  of  alcohol. 

Yet,  that  alcohol,  in  heroic  doses,  can  stimulate  in 
certain  cases  to  the  point  of  dragging  the  moribund 
from  the  very  portals  of  death,  is  made  plain  by  Dr. 
Abraham  Jacobi,  in  a  paper  on  Alcohol  Medication, 
excerpts  of  which  follow: 

"I  do  not  care  to  class  alcohol  anywhere.  It  has 
been  called,  or  eulogized  as  a  stimulant,  a  sedative,  an 


120     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

anesthetic,  an  inhibitory  and  depressant  power,  aye 
as  a  paralyzer.  I  do  not  contest  observations  and 
experiments  either  on  healthy  or  diseased  men,  and 
on  animals.  Indeed,  I  have  great  respect  for  experi- 
ments and  observations  in  and  out  of  our  laboratories. 
One  of  the  most  profitable  laboratories,  however,  is  a 
hospital  and  the  private  bed-side.  They  have  the  ad- 
vantage over  an  experiment  on  a  dog  or  a  rabbit,  for 
while  an  experiment  on  the  latter  is  not  infrequently 
devoid  of  clinical  observation,  when  he  publishes  his 
result,  the  clinician  seldom,  if  ever,  appeals  to  the  at- 
tention of  his  peers  before  he  has  confirmed  his  ob- 
servations by  scores  or  hundreds  of  cases.  Great 
clinicians  are  more  circumspect  than  loud.  Hippocra- 
tes, the  great,  says  more  frequently  than  any  of  his 
successors,  'it  seems  to  me/ 

"Having  been  in  uninterrupted  contact  with  diph- 
theria since  1858  when  it  began  its  renewed  murder- 
ous attack  on  our  part  of  the  world,  I  have  anxiously 
looked  for  means  to  mitigate  or  heal  what  too  often 
manifests  itself  as  absolutely  fatal.  The  virulent  epi- 
demics of  forty  years  ago  have  furnished  the  formida- 
ble examples  of  sepsis  and  gangrene  which  in  the  past 
were  mitigated  by  my  introduction  of  nasal  irriga- 
tions, and  sometimes  restored  to  final  health  by  local 
doses  of  alcoholic  beverages.  I  shall  return  to  that. 

"No  mixed  infection  is  amenable  to  the  action  of 
antitoxin.  It  is  only  the  omnivorous  pages  of  a  medi- 
cal journal  that  boast  of  successes.  Each  new  method 
of  treating  bad  cases  of  diphtheritic  sepsis  and  mixed 
infections  merely  followed  its  predecessors.  It  will 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  121 

not  do  to  doubt  the  favorable  reports  of  the  medical 
magazines,  nor  to  disparage  the  joyous  enthusiasm  of 
a  colleague  who  is  anxious  to  communicate  a  new  mode 
of  successful  treatment  to  those  who  anxiously  strive 
to  avoid  further  calamities.  As  a  rule,  however,  the 
number  of  cases  thus  treated  and  reported  is  small, 
and  if  you  wait  long  enough  for  your  defeats  they  will 
come  to  you.  Just  wait.  When  in  1860  I  began  to 
tracheotomize  in  diphtheritic  laryngitis,  I  had  three 
recoveries  in  my  first  five  cases.  They  were  published. 
Then — lo  and  behold,  in  the  early  seventies  I  had 
more  than  one  hundred  operations  without  a  single 
recovery.  So  I  learned  wisdom  and  caution.  That  is 
why  after  sixty  years  of  practice  when  I  trust  in 
alcohol  as  a  powerful  remedy  in  cases  of  diphtheritic 
and  other  sepsis,  I  may  be  credited  with  ample  experi- 
ence both  in  successes  and  failures  extending  over  half 
a  century.  What  I  offer  is  no  theory,  and  no  labora- 
tory experiments  on  the  well  or  sick  guinea  pigs.  My 
laboratory  has  been  different.  My  life  has  been  spent 
among  the  sick  only,  and  the  recovering  and  dying. 
"A  few  stray  specimens  of  my  observations  are 
as  follows :  With  one  of  my  most  respected  colleagues 
I  saw  thirty-five  years  ago  a  boy  of  five  years.  Mem- 
branes covered  his  fauces  and  mouth  and  part  of  his 
lips,  and  were  visible  in  the  nares.  Round  the  neck 
were  big  lymph  body  swellings,  now  known  to  all  of 
us  as  the  sure  proof  of  thorough  mixed  infection. 
Some  membranes  could  be  removed  by  forcible  injec- 
tions into  the  nose.  It  had  been  bleeding  and  oozing, 
the  odor  was  foul.  The  second  heart  sound,  still 


122     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

slightly  perceptible,  pulse  160,  hardly  felt  at  the 
wrist.  Boy  restless  in  his  semi-coma,  tossing  about, 
feet  bluish,  not  cold,  covered  with  erosions  and  sub- 
cutaneous hemorrhages  of  different  sizes.  His  whole 
surface  discolored,  from  drab  to  blue;  hemorrhages 
small  and  large  in  and  under  the  skin.  No  intestinal 
hemorrhage.  Urine  could  not  be  obtained.  My 
friend  told  me  I  was  not  called  by  him  but  by  the 
family  of  the  dying  boy ;  he  was  going  down  town  and 
on  his  way  would  order  the  undertaker  to  send  the 
coffin  after  dark.  I  begged  him  not  to  do  that,  but  to 
wait  until  to-morrow.  The  undertaker,  however, 
came  after  dark  and  left  disgusted.  Meanwhile  I  had 
permission  to  act.  The  boy's  stomach  retained  my 
whiskey,  from  one  to  two  teaspoonfuls  every  15  or  25 
minutes,  diluted  in  water,  occasionally  in  milk  or 
coffee,  and  his  rectum  retained  a  few  doses.  Within 
a  day  he  took  a  pint  and  a  half,  perhaps  more.  We 
kept  on,  the  boy  and  I.  He  was  alive  when  I  hap- 
pened to  meet  him  twenty  years  afterwards. 

"A  girl  of  seven  years  I  found  in  about  the  same 
condition  thirty  years  ago.  She  was  a  patient  of 
one  of  our  great  physicians  who,  when  he  died  sud 
denly  a  year  ago,  proved  to  the  world  that  there  are 
some  men  who  are  indispensable.  He  said,  '  Now  here 
I  have  given  your  whiskey  but  she  will  die/  How 
much  is  she  taking?  'Beside  her  other  drugs  she  is 
taking  as  much  as  half  a  pint  each  of  these  two  days, 
and  retains  it.'  Very  well,  just  continue,  and  I  will 
give  her  my  additional  half-pint.  So  we  did.  She 
took  a  pint  or  more  daily,  and  got  well. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  123 

"A  boy  of  three  years  with  the  formidable  symp- 
toms of  mixed  infection  was  'given  up.'  I  held  out 
the  hope  of  recovery  provided  the  doctor  would  suc- 
ceed in  getting  into  him,  with  other  appropriate  medi- 
cation, at  least  a  pint  of  whiskey  daily.  He  did  suc- 
ceed. Five  days  afterwards  the  father  called  in  de- 
spair, saying  his  child  was  alive  but  insane.  So  he 
was.  The  boy  was  better,  in  fact  on  the  way  to  re- 
covery, but  drunk.  To  me  that  was  a  welcome  occur- 
rence, for  I  knew,  and  want  my  readers  to  know,  that 
no  amount  of  whiskey  will  lead  to  intoxication  when 
its  effect  is  wanted  to  combat  sepsis.  I  repeat:  No 
amount  of  alcohol  will  intoxicate  a  thoroughly  septic 
person.  As  soon  as  my  little  patient  did  no  longer 
require  his  big  dose  of  alcohol,  it  made  him  'insane,' 
intoxicated.  I  had  enjoyed  that  experience  before,  in 
many  cases,  and  have  since.  May  be  my  first  case 
of  the  kind  was  that  of  a  refined  lady  who  had  typhoid 
fever  fifty  years  ago.  I  learned  the  alcohol  practice 
from  Dr.  Ernst  Schilling,  who  sixty  years  ago  treated 
many  hundreds  of  cases  of  typhoid  and  typhus 
amongst  the  immigrants  on  Ward's  Island.  My  lady 
patient,  thoroughly  septic,  took  a  quart  of  whiskey 
daily  ten  days  in  succession  until  the  beginning  of 
her  recovery;  no  other  drop  since. 

"I  want  these  specimens  of  alcohol  treatment  to 
suffice  for  my  purpose,  which  is  to  make  facts  tell 
their  stories.  My  cases  of  thorough  sepsis  relieved  or 
cured  by  alcohol  extend  over  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury. My  cases  have  not  all  been  cured.  I  belong 
to  the  class  that  has  to  meet  failures.  But  I  have 


124     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

seen  what  was  considered  hopeless  to  take  a  favorable 
turn.  There  are  in  diphtheria,  cases  which  are  not 
influenced  by  antitoxin  in  small  or  big  doses.  That 
class  of  cases  is  not  always  hopeless  when  the  doctor 
has  hope  and  discrimination  and  the  courage  to  fight 
infection  and  to  cheat  the  undertaker.  I  refuse  to 
deal  in  theories.  I  can  not  tell  the  cause  of  the  anti- 
septic action  of  alcoholic  beverages  when  administered 
in  sufficient  doses.  I  merely  refer  to  occurrences  and 
observations  extending  over  half  a  century  and  more. 
Let  somebody  else  explain.  Meanwhile  take  the 
hint."1 

Dr.  Beverley  Robinson,  Emeritus  Clinical  Professor 
of  Medicine,  University  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical 
College,  remarks  anent  alcohol  medication  in  severe 
cases  of  grippe  pneumonia: 

"For  stimulants  or  heart  tonics,  there  are  only  two 
worth  considering — one  is  strophanthus,  the  other  is 
old  brandy.  The  strophanthus  should  be  given  in 
small  doses,  one  to  two  minims,  every  two  or  three 
hours,  at  the  same  time  as  the  brandy.  The  latter 
may  be  given  in  doses  from  a  teaspoonful  to  a  table- 
spoonful  in  a  very  little  water,  or  Vichy  water,  ice 
cold. 

"The  nutriment  should  consist  of  fermented  milk, 
beef  juice,  panopepton,  light  broth  of  chicken,  or  mut- 
ton, jelly,  eggnogg  [a  mixture  of  milk,  eggs  and  spir- 
its], curds,  etc.  In  addition,  a  little  hot,  well-made 
tea  or  coffee  is  frequently  valuable.  Dry  champagne 

i  Alcohol  Medication,  by  A.  Jacobi,  M.D.  (American  Medi- 
cine, September,  1913). 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  STIMULANT  125 

is  also  helpful,  and  oxygen  inhaled  frequently,  with- 
out increased  fatigue  to  the  patient,  will  lessen 
dyspnoea  [difficult  breathing]  and  relieve  cyanosed 
[blued]  lips  and  extremities."1 

And  so,  there  are  physicians  of  the  highest  stand- 
ing, who  still  believe  in  alcohol,  as  a  stimulant,  as  a 
tonic,  and  as  a  saver  of  life,  when  all  other  medication 
fails. 

i  Grippe  Pneumonia,  by  Beverly  Robinson,  M.D.  ( New  York 
Medical  Journal,  January  20,  1917). 


CHAPTER  XXII 

ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON 

ALCOHOL,  whether  in  small  or  in  large  doses,  is  al- 
ways a  poison.  So  say  the  Anti-Alcoholists. 

Well,  we  are  willing  to  be  shown;  but  we  must  be 
shown.  Let  us  examine,  therefore,  the  evidence. 

At  the  outset  it  seems  strange  that,  if  alcohol  were 
a  poison,  nature  should  manufacture  it  within  the 
body  itself;  for,  we  have  already  shown  that  all  the 
starch  and  sugar  we  ingest  are  changed  into  alcohol 
and  carbonic  acid  within  the  organism. 

Of  course,  there  are  poisons  formed  in  the  body; 
but  sugar  would  hardly  be  considered  our  most  valu- 
able food  were  a  deadly  poison  (alcohol)  its  chief 
by-product. 

At  a  symposium,  held  at  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Medicine,  on  April  6,  1916,  Dr.  Charles  R.  Stock- 
ard,  of  Cornell  University,  described  a  number  of 
experiments  he  had  made,  with  alcohol,  upon  the 
eggs  of  fish  and  of  hens.  Needless  to  say,  the  solu- 
tions of  alcohol  into  which  the  fishes '  eggs  were  placed 
did  not  agree  with  the  embryos;  nor  did  it  tend  to 
make  the  potential  chicks  robust,  to  hold  the  eggs, 
from  which  they  were  soon  to  emerge,  over  a  funnel 
emitting  strong  alcohol  fumes.  ' '  Magnesium  chloride, 

126 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  127 

however, ' '  the  same  learned  physician  declared,  ' '  had 
much  the  same  effect. " 

Dr.  Stockard  next  directed  his  kind  attention  to 
guinea  pigs.  Whenever  he  treated  prospective  par- 
ents of  those  inoffensive  animals,  with  alcohol,  results 
upon  their  progeny  were  weird  and  depressing. 

We  outcast  moderate  drinkers,  however,  can  form 
no  very  clear  idea  of  the  value  of  Dr.  Stockard 's  ex- 
periments upon  guinea  pigs,  as  just  how  badly  the 
little  creatures  were  treated  Dr.  Stockard  saith  not. 
Naturally,  if  they  were  thoroughly  saturated  with  al- 
cohol, such  treatment  would  not  much  enhance  their 
health ;  nor  would  it  conduce  to  the  breeding  of  start- 
lingly  splendid  offspring. 

Such  arguments  are  rather  absurd,  as  no  sane  per- 
son contends  that  it  would  be  good  for  anybody  to 
soak  himself  in  alcohol — unless  he  happened  to  be  a 
corpse,  when  alcohol  would  be  an  excellent  preserva- 
tive. But  we  must  say  there  are  few  substances  which 
a  man  can  abuse  as  regularly  as  he  does  alcohol,  and 
"get  away  with  it." 

The  next  in  this  grave  symposium  to  contribute  his 
ideas  was  Dr.  Frederick  S.  Lee.  He  reported  results 
of  the  action  of  alcohol  upon  muscles.  "Some  doc- 
tors/' he  said,  "asserted  that  alcohol  in  small  doses 
augmented  the  activity  of  nervous  tissues,  and  in  large 
doses  depressed  it  (Binz).  Others  (Schmiedeberg) 
believed  that  there  was  always  a  depressing  action, 
whatever  the  quantity  of  the  drug." 

Such  conflicting  testimony  determined  Dr.  Lee  to 
experiment  and  find  out  for  himself.  So  he,  assisted 


128      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

by  Drs.  Salant  and  Levine,  ''took"  a  frog,  which  was 
of  course  the  doom  of  that  batrachian.  One  thigh  of 
the  amphibian  was  ligated  (tied),  in  order  to  obtain 
a  control  muscle  for  comparison,  and  a  solution  of 
ethyl  alcohol  was  then  injected  into  the  stomach.  A 
half  hour  later  the  frog  was  killed,  and  both  the  thigh 
muscles,  one  normal  and  one  alcoholized,  were  removed 
and  stimulated  until  exhausted.  It  was  found  that, 
when  the  doses  were  small,  alcohol  increased  the  work- 
ing power  of  the  muscle,  both  by  lengthening  the 
working  period,  and  by  increasing  the  amount  of 
work  performed ;  whereas,  in  large  doses,  it  decreased 
the  working  power. — Showing  that  man  may  drink  a 
•little,  but  not  too  much. 

The  inference  Dr.  Lee  drew  from  his  experiment 
was  that,  while  in  small  quantity  alcohol  may  be 
utilized  by  living  tissues  both  as  a  food  and  as  a 
source  of  energy,  in  larger  quantity,  its  action  was 
mainly  toxic. 

The  physicians  from  inebriate  institutions  and  farm 
colonies,  who  were  heard  at  the  symposium,  were  nat- 
urally rather  pessimistic  in  their  views  on  alcohol  as 
a  health  food. 

When  Dr.  Abraham  Jacobi  arose  he  said  he  felt 
sorry  for  Dr.  Stockard's  guinea  pigs,  but  that  his 
experience  of  over  fifty  years  in  practice  gave  strength 
to  his  positive  assertion  that  there  was  no  remedy  to 
equal  alcohol  in  cases  of  mixed  infection.  There  were 
septic  diseases  that  could  not  be  treated  or  cured  un- 
less large  doses  of  alcohol  were  given.  Mixed  infec- 
tion in  diphtheria  could  not  be  cured  by  anti-toxin, 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  129 

but  treated  with  large  doses  of  alcohol  the  sufferers 
might  be  saved. 

He  said  he  had  seen  many  such  living,  dying,  or 
moribund  patients  since  1858,  who  had  recovered  abso- 
lutely through  taking  whiskey. — "They  were  not 
guinea  pigs,  however,  but  human  beings,"  he  ended 
dryly. 

It  should  now  be  interesting  to  discuss  two  perfectly 
contradictory  assertions  of  Sir  Victor  Horsley,  as  to 
the  effect  of  alcohol  upon  tissue-waste  or  oxidation. 
But  that  I  may  be  accused  neither  of  inaccuracy  nor 
of  making  false  statements,  I  shall  quote  Sir  Horsley 
verbatim. 

On  page  182  (Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body]  is  the 
following :  ' '  The  problem  as  to  whether  alcohol  may 
be  regarded  as  saving  the  waste  of  the  tissues  has  been 
frequently  investigated,  and,  as  the  methods  of  science 
have  improved,  the  experiments  of  Binz  (1888),  often 
quoted  in  favour  of  the  value  of  alcohol  in  saving 
tissue  waste,  have  been  disproved.  For  instance, 
Eomeyn,  when  he  gave  to  starving  individuals  large 
doses  of  alcohol,  on  no  occasion  observed  any  diminu- 
tion in  the  elimination  of  nitrogen  [showing  no  saving 
in  tissue  waste],  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  some  cases, 
there  was  a  very  decided  increase.  This  means  that 
the  body  waste  was  not  saved,  but  increased  by  alco- 
hol. [In  other  words,  alcohol  increased  tissue-oxida- 
tion.] 

"In  fact,  it  is  strongly  insisted  on,  by  those  who 
have  collated  recent  observations  on  this  point,  that, 
in  tissues  unaccustomed  to  the  presence  of  alcohol,  its 


130     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

administration  is  almost  invariably  followed,  for  a 
short  period  at  any  rate,  by  increased  nitrogenous 
waste. 

"We  still  need  more  knowledge  on  this  difficult 
point ;  but  the  evidence  as  it  stands  shows  the  taking 
of  alcohol  has  no  tendency  to  save  tissue  waste." 

Alcohol,  then,  according  to  Sir  Victor  Horsley's 
own  emphatic  statement,  not  only  does  not,  but  has 
not  even  a  tendency  to  save  or  to  delay  tissue  waste. 
But  on  page  182,  from  which  we  have  just  quoted, 
Sir  Victor  was  anxious  to  disprove  a  supposedly  valu- 
able property  of  alcohol,  namely,  that  of  retarding 
tissue-waste ;  for,  if  alcohol  should  retard  tissue  waste, 
that  would  argue  alcohol  to  be  either  a  good  food 
per  se,  or,  at  least,  a  good  substitute  for  food. 

Later,  however  in  the  same  book,  Sir  Victor  desires 
to  demonstrate  something  wholly  different,  i.e.,  that 
alcohol  retards  oxidation,  and  thereby  poisons  the 
body  by  allowing  the  accumulation  of  waste  products. 
So,  on  page  227,  Sir  Victor  delivers  these  contrary 
opinions : 

"The  greatest  possible  difference  exists  as  to  the 
rate  at  which  oxidation  goes  on.  When  there  is  noth- 
ing to  hinder  its  occurrence  the  poisonous  toxines 
[What  is  a  non-poisonous  toxine?]  and  waste  mat- 
ters which  form  in  our  bodies  are  rapidly  burnt 
up  and  eliminated,  and  health  prevails.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  various  things  interfere  with 
oxidation,  our  vitality  and  vigor  become  necessarily 
impaired. 

"ALCOHOL  A  CAUSE  OF  DEFICIENT  OXIDATION  OP 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  131 

TISSUE.  From  what  has  been  stated  it  is  clear  that 
anything  which  interferes  with  the  process  of  oxi- 
dation is  to  be  regretted,  as  tending  to  delay  the  nor- 
mal elimination  of  waste  material.  Alcohol  is  ad- 
mitted to  have  this  unfortunate  effect.  It  has  long 
been  considered  to  have  the  power  of  interfering  with 
and  lessening  oxidation  [italics  mine]  ;  this  being  ex- 
plained on  the  theory  that  it  robs  the  tissues  of  the 
oxygen  which  they  would  otherwise  use  for  combus- 
tion. [We  shall  examine  that  theory  presently.] 

"Therefore  when  alcohol  is  present  the  tissues  are 
starved  of  oxygen,  hence  their  normal  rate  of  metabo- 
lism or  tissue  combustion  is  delayed,  and  they  cannot 
adequately  get  rid  of  their  waste  material.  Thus  the 
body  becomes  hampered  by  the  presence  of  many 
effete  substances,  which  ought  to  have  been  eliminated, 
had  oxidation  not  been  interfered  with.  As  a  conse- 
quence of  this,  ill-health  of  various  degrees  is  liable 
to  occur.  "—But  we  have  quoted  enough,  and  are  sur- 
feited with  prolix  contradictions. 

We  understand  that,  on  page  182,  "The  taking  of 
alcohol  has  no  tendency  to  save  tissue  waste.  .  .  .  But, 
on  the  contrary,  leads  to  increased  nitrogenous  [tis- 
sue] waste."  Then,  while  we  are  digesting  that  inter- 
esting and  unequivocal  assertion,  that  comfortable 
process  is  suddenly  arrested,  on  page  227,  by  the  oppo- 
site statement  in  bold,  black  type,  just  as  emphatically 
argued,  that  "Alcohol  [is]  a  Cause  of  Deficient  Oxi- 
dation of  Tissue. " 

To  find  the  light  in  this  labyrinth  of  darkness  will 
now  be  our  task. 


132      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

We  should  remember  that  alcohol,  being  easily  oxi- 
dized, is  consumed  almost  completely  within  the  body, 
unless  immoderate  quantities  are  ingested;  and  just 
how  a  substance  can  act  in  any  way  where  it  is  not,  is 
difficult,  for  me  at  least,  to  see. 

As  to  experiments  showing  the  gruesome  effects  of 
alcoholizing  dogs,  cats,  and  guinea  pigs,  many  should 
be  taken  cum  grano  salis.  Frequently  we  are  not  told 
whether  the  alcohol  is  injected  into  the  veins,  or  given 
by  the  mouth ;  and,  the  effects  of  those  two  procedures 
being  vastly  different,  that  is  a  grave  omission. 
Again,  we  are  not  always  informed  of  the  precise 
amount  of  alcohol  injected  or  ingested,  also  a  detail 
of  importance. 

What  we  do  know  is  that  we,  mere  human  beings, 
are  not  dogs,  cats,  guinea  pigs,  etc. ;  and  that  fact, 
too,  makes  considerable  difference,  inasmuch  as  many 
substances  are  poisonous  to  some  animals  and  innocu- 
ous to  others.  Cattle  growers  assert  that  some  species 
of  larkspur  are  fatally  poisonous  to  cows  and  harm- 
less to  sheep.  The  nicotine  of  tobacco  will  kill  a  dog 
when  placed  on  its  tongue ;  yet  there  are  centenarians 
who  have  been  inveterate  smokers  from  boyhood. 

Now,  regarding  alcohol's  affinity  for  oxygen,  we 
admit  that  alcohol  combines  with  that  gas  readily. 
But  how  do  the  Anti-Alcoholists  put  that  truth? 
They  say  that  alcohol,  because  of  its  strong  affinity 
for  oxygen,  extracts  an  excessive  quantity  of  that  pre- 
cious substance  from  the  blood ;  the  result  being  that 
our  food  and  tissues  are  insufficiently  oxidized  (Alco- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  133 

hoi  and  the  Human  Body,  p.  227,  but  not  p.  182),  and 
a  toxaemic  (blood-poisoned)  condition  follows.1 

They  are  careful,  however,  not  to  tell  us  the  whole 
truth,  which  is,  that,  when  the  blood  needs  oxygen,  it 
absorbs  it  quickly  from  the  lungs,  and  that,  therefore, 
the  food  is  not  deficiently  oxidized,  and  does  not  poi- 
son the  blood. 

A  fire  burning  in  a  room  consumes  oxygen,  but,  if 
a  window  remains  open,  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  the 
room  space  would  not  be  materially  reduced.  In  the 
case  of  the  blood,  the  open  window  is  the  lungs. 

The  tenacity  with  which  the  blood  maintains  its 
normal  composition,  under  even  abnormal  conditions, 
is  extraordinary.  The  reason  for  the  stability  of  this 
balance  rests  in  the  general  activity,  adaptability,  and 
elasticity  of  the  organism.  Frequently  disturbed  by 
alternate  conditions  of  repose  and  of  exercise,  by  the 
ingestion  of  various  foods,  and,  occasionally,  of  alco- 
hol, the  physiological  content  of  the  blood  remains 
constant  for  the  reason  we  have  given. 

So,  when  Prohibitionists  contend  that  alcohol  per- 
manently robs  the  blood  of  its  oxygen,  thereby  so  re- 
ducing its  power  as  an  oxidizing  agent  that  it  becomes 
poisoned  by  deficiently  oxidized  material  circulating 
within  it,  they  are  either  deliberately  mendacious,  or 
else  wofully  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  physiology. 

Again,  scientists  have  injected  small  quantities  of 
ethyl  alcohol,  or  of  alcoholic  liquids,  into  the  veins  of 

i  Alcohol— Its  Influence  on  Mind  and  Body,  p.  77,  by  Edwin 
F.  Bowers,  M.D. 


134     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

guinea  pigs  and  other  small  animals,  killing  them, 
after  great  torture.  Thereupon  the  Prohibitionists 
have  exclaimed  triumphantly  that  such  experiments 
conclusively  proved  alcohol  to  be,  even  in  small 
amount,  a  terrific  poison. 

To  illustrate  the  length  to  which  certain  fanatical 
Prohibitionists  will  go  for  their  " cause,"  let  us  read 
this  hair-raising  and  harrowing  description  by  Cap- 
tain Jacob,  quoted  in  the  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in 
Europe,  pp.  241  and  242,  of  the  death  throes  of  a 
guinea  pig  which  has  been  inoculated  with  a  quarter 
of  a  cubic  centimetre  of  absinthe  essence : 

1  'At  first  it  seems  thunderstruck.  It  remains  fixed 
in  one  place  as  if  stunned.  At  the  end  of  two  or  three 
minutes  there  follow  on  this  stupor  the  most  frightful 
agonies.  Suddenly  it  stiffens  on  its  paws  and  then 
makes,  all  at  once,  a  prodigious  leap  into  the  air. 
The  poor  little  creature,  ordinarily  so  harmless,  takes 
on  an  entirely  unexpected  expression  of  ferocity.  It 
resembles  an  hydrophobic  animal,  with  its  convulsed 
face,  its  twisted  lips,  covered  with  foam.  In  its  eyes 
— wide  open,  haggard,  convulsive,  mad,  one  reads  an 
impulse  to  kill.  It  is  now  a  prey  to  hallucinations. 
Directly  its  spine  curves  in  a  half-circle.  Its  mem- 
branes and  whole  body  are  thrilled  with  shocks,  inter- 
rupted by  little  plaintive  cries.  Then  a  brief  moment 
of  calm.  The  attack  recommences,  showing  at  each 
fresh  crisis,  signs  of  accumulated  violence.  Finally 
it  dies  after  a  half-hour  of  agony. 

"Is  it  not  enough  to  frighten  one  when  one  reflects 
how  many  men  drink  this  poison  absinthe?  One 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  135 

meets  in  the  cities,  Saturday  evenings  and  Sundays, 
gallows-birds  with  the  glare  of  an  homicidal  mania  at 
the  bottom  of  their  pupils.  Take  care,  my  friends, 
such  an  one  is  a  dangerous  tippler,  ordinarily  inoffen- 
sive enough,  it  may  be,  but  with  absinthe  in  him,  an 
evil  demon.  Such  are  brutes  who  plant  their  knives 
in  others'  backs;  who,  returning  to  their  wretched 
lodgings,  break  chairs  and  dishes,  hammer  the  wife, 
and  cripple  the  children, — the  children  trembling  and 
screaming  with  terror,  crouched  under  the  table  or 
behind  the  stove.  Oh,  yes !  You  know  well  that  I  do 
not  exaggerate.  The  poster  in  the  corridor  with  the 
inscription  in  big  red  letters,  'Absinthe  Makes 
Maniacs,'  is  no  lie." 

The  above  literary  gem  occurs  in  Discours  d'  un 
Capitaine  a  ses  Soldats,  by  Captain  Jacob,  of  the 
109th  Infantry. 

Ernest  Gordon  (The  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in 
Europe )  says  of  Captain  Jacob 's  book,  that  it  has  been 
crowned  by  the  French  Academy,  and  that  two  chap- 
ters of  its  Anti-Alcohol  teaching  have  been  printed 
separately  and  supplied  with  stereopticon  slides  for 
use  in  the  army.  "They  constitute,"  says  Mr.  Gor- 
don, "one  of  the  most  powerful  attacks  on  drinking 
habits  of  which  the  writer  [Mr.  Gordon]  knows." 

But,  oh,  Half -Truth  potent  for  evil,  what  is  not  per- 
petrated in  thy  name !  With  relief  we  now  turn  from 
ignorant  rabidity  to  the  broad  knowledge  of  calm 
intellectuals. 

Dr.  Victor  C.  Vaughan,  than  whom  none  is  more 
honored  in  the  domain  of  medicine,  performed  some 


136      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

quite  interesting  experiments  upon  guinea  pigs  him- 
self. His,  also,  were  injection  experiments,  but  with 
substances  known  to  be  not  only  wholesome,  but  indis- 
pensable to  life. 

Dr.  Vaughan  injected  small  quantities  of  the  pro- 
teins, extracted  by  a  special  process,  from  all  kinds  of 
animal  substances,  into  the  veins  of  small  animals, 
which  simple  procedure  killed  the  animals  with  neat- 
ness and  dispatch.  He  next  experimented  with 
vegetable  proteins,  and  found  that  these,  when  in- 
jected into  the  veins  of  animals,  were  quite  as  virulent 
as  were  the  animal  proteins. 

The  most  poisonous  substance  he  found  was  the 
casein  extracted  from  fresh  milk;  a  single  gram  of 
this,  furnishing  sufficient  poison  to  kill  eight  hundred 
guinea  pigs,  provided,  of  course,  it  was  injected  intra- 
venously (into  the  veins),  or  intracardiacly  (into  the 
cavity  of  the  heart). 

"Think  of  that/'  Dr.  Vaughan  exclaims,  ''all 
mammalian  young  are  reared,  during  a  certain  period 
of  their  lives,  on  milk,  and  still  you  can  obtain  from 
one  gram  of  casein  enough  poison,  when  injected 
intravenously  or  intracardiacly,  to  kill  800  guinea 
pigs! 

"You  will  understand,"  he  adds,  "that  given  by 
mouth  these  substances  are  not  poisonous.  They 
couldn't  be  because  we  are  eating  all  kinds  of  pro- 
teins, more  or  less  bacterial  proteins,  and,  of  course, 
animal  and  vegetable  proteins.  Now  why  are  they  not 
poisonous  when  taken  by  mouth?  For  two  or  three 
very  good  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  the  digestive 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  137 

ferments  of  the  alimentary  canal  break  up  these 
poisons  into  harmless  substances.  In  the  second  place, 
even  though  they  were  not  broken  up,  they  are  not 
diffusible  arid  would  not  pass  through  the  walls  of  the 
intestines;  so,  as  long  as  they  are  confined  to  the 
alimentary  canal  they  are  not  poisonous." 

Dr.  Vaughan  concludes:  "Whatever  the  origin  of 
the  protein  may  be  [bacterial,  animal,  or  vegetable], 
it  contains  a  poisonous  substance,  and  this  poisonous 
substance  is  grossly  the  same  in  its  [fatal]  action." 

The  above  shows  strikingly  the  danger  of  a  little 
knowledge — half-truths;  for  suppose  we  should  have 
one  day  in  our  midst  anti-milk  cranks,  could  they  not 
show,  on  the  unimpeachable  authority  of  Dr.  Yaughan, 
that  a  single  gram  of  casein,  extracted  from  fresh 
milk,  would  kill  eight  hundred  guinea  pigs,  when 
injected  into  the  veins? 

And  now  in  the  steady  light  of  the  whole-truth, 
which  we  have  tried  to  present,  what  becomes  of  the 
argument  of  the  alcohol -phobe,  Captain  Jacob,  whose 
book  was  li Crowned  by  the  French  Academy?" 

Inasmuch  as  Captain  Jacob  injected  into  the  veins 
of  his  guinea  pig  his  *'  quarter  of  a  cubic  centimeter 
of  absinthe  essence,"  he  proved  merely  that  absinthe 
essence,  like  the  proteins  of  the  foods  which  we  eat 
daily  with  impunity,  was  poisonous  when  injected 
into  the  veins.  But,  in  the  light  of  what  we  have 
just  learned,  that  fatal  injection  did  not  prove,  al- 
though Captain  Jacob  implied  that  it  did,  that  the 
same  dose,  or  even  a  much  greater  dose  of  absinthe 
would  have  produced  the  same  effect  by  mouth.  In- 


138      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

deed,  we  know  now  absolutely,  thanks  to  the  labors  of 
Dr.  Vaughan,  that  absinthe  essence,  taken  orally, 
would  not,  or  could  not,  have  had  anything  like  the 
same  effect. 

Yet  please  understand  that  the  above  critical  expo- 
sition was  not  designed  to  encourage  the  drinking 
of  absinthe,  which,  personally,  I  believe  to  be  in- 
jurious in  excess,  and  dangerous  even  in  moderation ; 
I  tried  merely  to  show  that  Captain  Jacob 's  gruesome 
experiment  proves  absolutely  nothing  in  so  far  as  the 
harmf  ulness  of  drinking  absinthe  is  concerned. 

Before  dismissing  the  subject  of  alcohol  as  a  poison, 
it  behooves  us  to  examine  further  the  action  of  alcohol 
upon  the  cells  of  the  body. 

In  The  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe,  Ernest 
Gordon,  quoting  from  a  lecture  delivered  somewhere 
in  France,  says :  "Alcohol  is  a  corrosive  poison  which 
destroys  the  tissues.  Its  elimination  being  very  slow, 
certain  organs,  notably  the  brain  and  liver,  become 
saturated  with  it.  Hence  lesions,  hemorrhages,  sores, 
cramps,  vertigoes,  tremblings,  mental  failures,  hal- 
lucinations, deliriums. ' ' 

Interesting,  but  untrue. 

When  a  man  weighing  one  hundred  and  forty 
pounds  drinks  a  pint  of  beer,  he  introduces  into  his 
body  0.05  gramme  of  alcohol  to  the  pound  of  his 
weight.  That  amount  would  not  worry  him  did  he 
know  that  alcohol  is  found  in  the  organisms  of  nor- 
mal persons  who  have  never  even  tasted  it;  Nature 
herself  having  put  it  there.  True,  the  amount  found 
has  been  small;  but  there  has  never  been  observed  a 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  POISON  139 

great  amount  of  alcohol  in  any  of  the  organs  of  the 
body,  even  in  cases  of  the  highest  intoxication 
(Starke).  Surmise,  therefore,  how  little  alcohol 
could  be  found  in  the  organs  of  a  moderate  drinker. 

Absolute  alcohol  is  detrimental  to  cells;  but  no  one 
drinks  absolute  alcohol,  and,  certainly,  the  mild  alco- 
holic beverages,  in  which  the  sane  part  of  our  popu- 
lation indulges,  could  hardly  destroy  cells,  seeing  that 
their  slight  alcoholic  content  would  be  quickly  vola- 
tilized and  oxidized. — Hence,  as  no  appreciable 
amount  of  alcohol  remains  in  the  tissues,  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  it  could  injure  them. 

Distilled  water,  a  fairly  pure  substance,  is  as  harm- 
ful to  living  cells  as  is  absolute  alcohol;  it  becomes 
innocuous,  however,  when  salts,  in  a  certain  given  con- 
centration, are  suspended  in  it. 

Ordinary  table  salt,  indispensable  to  our  organism, 
in  0.7  to  0.9  per  cent,  solution,  will  kill  most  living 
cells  instantly;  and  it  will  have  that  effect,  not  only 
as  a  pure  or  absolute  salt,  but  even  in  strong  watery 
solutions  (Starke). 

"It  has  been  found  that  cells  of  the  ciliated  epi- 
thelium of  the  air  passages,  isolated  from  the  mucous 
membranes  and  transposed  into  a  slightly  alcoholized 
physiological  salt  solution  remain  alive  much  longer 
than  in  a  non-alcoholic  solution. "  (Starke.) 

If  alcohol  is  a  poison,  it  is  such  a  slow  one  that  it 
sometimes  takes  more  than  a  hundred  years  to  kill  a 
man. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

EFFECTS  OF,  AND  FACTS  ABOUT,  ALCOHOL 

ALCOHOL  abates  nervous  irritability,  and  alters  the 
distribution  of  blood  by  sending  most  of  it  to  the 
periphery  (surface  of  the  body).  One  feels,  there- 
fore, after  having  taken  alcohol,  a  sensation  of  warmth, 
which  is  not  illusory,  as  some  contend,  but  real.  The 
feeling  of  warmth,  however,  caused  by  the  rush  of 
blood  to  the  surface  of  the  body,  is  not  lasting,  as 
there  the  blood  quickly  loses  heat,  and  the  tem- 
perature of  the  organism  falls. 

Coffee  and  tea,  on  the  other  hand,  increase  nervous 
irritability,  and  draw  the  blood  from  the  periphery, 
thereby  gorging  the  internal  organs.  It  is  well  known 
that  coffee  is  an  antidote  to  alcohol. 

The  cells  of  plants,  animals  and  man  know  alcohol ; 
it  being  formed  normally  in  them. 

Alcohol  is  absorbed  easily  and  rapidly  by  the 
stomach,  and,  when  incorporated  in  the  juices  of  the 
body,  acts  like  the  carbohydrates  (starches),  in  that 
it  creates  heat  and  imparts  strength  for  muscular 
work. 

The  action  of  alcohol  on  the  nervous  system  depends 
upon  the  amount  ingested,  and  upon  the  immediate 
needs  of  the  system.  If  there  is  little  other  nourish- 
ment available,  and  the  need  of  the  body  is  great, 

140 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  141 

owing  to  heavy  muscular  work  (furniture  movers, 
truckmen),  or,  if  the  system  is  in  a  weak  and  impov- 
erished condition  from  a  protracted  illness,  the  in- 
toxicating effects  of  alcohol  are  much  reduced.  That 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  there  are  times  when  a  small 
amount  will  intoxicate,  and  other  times  when  a  rela- 
tively large  amount  will  not. 

Alcohol's  specific  action  is  exerted  on  the  terminal 
apparatus  of  nerves,  or  on  the  central  nervous  system. 
"The  nerve  trunks  are  not  essentially  affected; 
neither  are  the  blood  vessels  directly.  With  the  lat- 
ter, as  with  the  heart,  the  effect  is  either  on  the  vaso- 
motor  nerves,  or  on  those  of  the  heart ;  or  else,  in  the 
case  of  the  heart,  this  muscle,  like  any  other,  makes 
use  of  the  alcohol  as  a  nutrient  material  in  the  per- 
formance of  its  work."  [J.  Starke.]  The  carbohy- 
drates [cereals,  sugar],  which  are  necessary  for  us,  act 
in  the  same  way,  although  their  specific  effects  are  de- 
cidedly weaker. 

"  Alcohol  stimulates  the  terminal  apparatuses  of  the 
nerves  of  the  bodily  organs.  It  stimulates,  too,  many 
of  the  glandular  nerves  through  the  medium  of  the 
central  nervous  system,  but  probably  many  of  them 
also  directly. 

"  Taken  in  moderation,  alcohol  does  not  act  as  a 
poison  to  the  central  nervous  system,  for  there  is 
lacking  every  characteristic  symptom  of  such  an  ac- 
tion. 

"The  action  consists  in  functional  changes  which 
lie  within  the  range  of  quite  normal  play,  and  not  in 
'disturbances.'  This  continues  to  be  the  case  even 


142      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

when  alcohol  is  taken  regularly  for  years  in  succes- 
sion ;  and  no  disturbances  occur  if  the  use  of  alcohol 
is  suddenly  discontinued."1 

Dr.  Starke  next  speaks  of  the  "inner  stimulation" 
produced  by  alcohol.  "In  this  condition,"  he  avers, 
"we  breathe  freely  and  deep,  the  skin  is  pleasantly 
warm,  our  internal  organs  are  grateful  for  the  free- 
dom from  too  much  blood,  digestion  is  unimpeded, 
and  the  heart  beats  full  and  strong."  .  .  . 

Further  on  Dr.  Starke  says:  "The  moderate  use 
of  alcohol  does  not  affect  the  procreative  capacity,  the 
capability  of  suckling,  or  the  duration  of  life."  Al- 
cohol, when  scientifically,  or  judiciously  used,  prob- 
ably affects  all  three — favorably.  More  about  that 
later. 

Beer,  being  made  from  cereal  and  producing  both 
heat  and  energy,  has  been  called  "liquid  bread." 
But  bread  is  cheaper,  some  will  say.  Now,  apart  from 
the  fact  that  what  a  man  pays  for  his  food  is  his 
own  business,  it  is  not  certain  that  bread  is  cheaper. 
As  a  rule,  bread  is  buttered,  and  butter  is  dear. 

"A  litre  of  Munich  beer  contains,  in  round  num- 
bers, 35  grammes  of  nutritive  material  in  the  form  of 
alcohol,  and  60  grammes  of  other  nutritive  matter. 
That  means  95  grammes  of  nutritious  substances  in  a 
litre,  and  in  four  litres  380  grammes  of  chemically 
pure,  therefore  concentrated,  nutrient  material." 
(Starke.) 

According  to  Ernest  Gordon,  "a  glass  of  beer  cost- 
ing 25  pfennigs  [five  cents]  has  no  more  nourishment 

i  Alcohol — The  Sanction  for  Its  Use,  by  J.  Starke,  M.D. 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  143 

than  1  pfennig's  worth  of  cheese."  Well,  a  pfennig's 
worth  of  cheese  is  a  small  piece  of  it,  and  cheese  is 
concentrated  nourishment.  Besides,  many  persons 
like  beer  much  better  than  cheese,  and  beer,  being 
easily  digestible,  agrees  with  them  better.  Neither 
is  the  pleasure  in  drinking  a  cold  draught  of  beer  a 
negligible  factor  in  the  conditions  necessary  to  health. 
There  are  those  who  would  drink  beer  did  it  contain 
no  more  nourishment  than  sawdust.  Finally,  beer 
contains  much  water,  and  we  can  live  without  food  far 
longer  than  without  water. 

When  Sir  Victor  Horsley  and  others  prove  by  ex- 
periments upon  men  and  animals  that  alcohol  de- 
creases the  tonus  of  muscle,  they  merely  demonstrate 
what  everyone  already  knows.  For  example,  on  page 
112  (Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body),  we  are  told  of 
an  experiment  in  which  two  puppies  are  given  alcohol 
in  their  food  (this  time  the  alcohol  was  not  "in- 
jected," and  so  did  not  kill  the  animals),  while  two 
other  puppies  were  given  food  and  no  alcohol;  the 
experiment  continuing  for  several  days. 

"It  was  often  noted  that  the  normal  dogs  were 
playing  actively,  whilst  the  alcohol-taking  dogs  were 
quiet,  and  content  to  do  nothing/' — An  excellent 
demonstration  of  the  sedative  and  relaxing  power  of 
alcohol,  constituting  its  chief  value. 

High-strung  men  and  women  who  take  alcohol  are 
often  very  much  better  for  occasionally  remaining 
"quiet,  and  content  to  do  nothing."  On  the  other 
hand,  a  college  crew,  just  before  the  boat-race,  do  not 
load  up  on  whiskey — if  they  wish  to  win  the  race. 


144     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

In  the  drinking  of  alcohol,  as  in  the  eating  of  food, 
our  sensations  tell  us  when  we  have  had  enough ;  and 
it  is  as  easy  for  a  moderate  drinker  to  continue  to 
drink  moderately,  as  for  a  man  with  a  hearty  appetite 
not  to  gorge  himself.  There  are  dishes  as  seductive 
to  the  gourmand,  as  the  finest  wines  are  to  the  gour- 
met. We  should  therefore  learn  to  restrain  our  appe- 
tite for  food,  as  well  as  for  drink ;  otherwise,  we  must 
bear  the  consequences. 

The  proof  that  moderate  alcoholic  indulgence  rarely 
leads  to  excess,  is  the  fact  that  the  vast  majority  of 
mankind  continue  to  be  moderate  drinkers.  Drunk- 
ards are  in  the  minority;  and,  of  these,  all,  without 
exception,  have  some  brain  defect.  If  drinking,  and 
not  individual  defectiveness,  were  the  cause  of  chronic 
alcoholism,  then  practically  the  whole  world  would  be 
perennially  drunken;  for  practically  the  whole  world 
drinks. 

Great  misfortunes,  or  supreme  indifference  to  men- 
tal and  physical  well-being,  often  lead  to  excess  in 
alcohol,  for  the  sake  of  stupefaction,  or  partial  ob- 
livion. Not  all,  however,  who  are  despairing  or  un- 
fortunate, take  to  drink.  Succumbing  to  alcohol 
presupposes  weak  character  and  a  lack  of  normal  re- 
actionary power.  Drunkenness  is  not  a  cause,  but  an 
effect,  of  abnormal  mentality.  Yet  there  are  mental 
tortures  that  crave  drink  as  a  panacea. 

The  statistics  relative  to  drink  as  a  cause  of  insanity, 
compiled  in  hospitals  for  the  insane,  are  not  always 
reliable.  That  many,  or  even  most,  lunatics  are  alco- 
holics, proves  merely  that,  as  a  rule,  insane  persons 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  145 

drink;  certainly  it  does  not  prove  that  the  sane  are 
made  insane  by  alcohol. 

Drinking  to  excess  is  one  of  the  signs  of  insanity. 
A  perfectly  sane  person  stops  drinking  when  he  has 
had  enough.  An  insane  person,  or  a  "border-line" 
case,  keeps  on  drinking,  just  as  he  keeps  on  eating, 
until  he  is  "full."  Only  the  truly  sane  have  self- 
control.  A  fool,  or  a  high-class  imbecile  (moron), 
hardly  knows  enough  to  put  on  more  clothing  when  he 
is  cold,  or  "to  come  in  out  of  the  rain."  How,  then, 
would  he  know  enough  to  drink  moderately? 

I  think  that  the  majority  of  physicians  will  agree 
with  me  when  I  say  that  it  would  take  more  than 
alcohol  to  upset  a  sane,  well-balanced  mind.  Neither 
do  blows  on  the  head  nor  worries  often  cause  in- 
sanity. The  chief  causes  are  an  hereditary  taint  and 
syphilitic  infection. 

When  the  progeny  of  the  mentally  unsound  are  un- 
balanced, it  is  the  basic  unsoundness,  rather  than  the 
incidental  chronic  alcoholism  of  the  parents,  that  is 
responsible. 

Confirmed  drinkers  rarely  care  for  women;  prob- 
ably because  no  man  can  whole-heartedly  serve  two 
masters,  or,  for  that  matter,  two  mistresses. 

Again,  when  we  consider  that  many  drunkards 
positively  dislike  the  taste  of  alcohol — drinking  it 
purely  for  its  lethal  effect, — liquor  seems  not  so  seduc- 
tive as  it  is  accredited  with  being. 

Where  the  finest  and  rarest  wines  are  sold,  there 
is  the  least  drunkenness;  in  the  low,  poisonous  dram- 
shops there  is  the  most.  Now,  it  is  well-known  that 


146      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

the  cheap  liquors  contain  fusel-oil.  What  is  fusel-oil? 
Its  chemical  name  is  amyl-alcohol,  an  ingredient  of 
crude  alcohol  obtained  by  distilling  grain  and  pota- 
toes. As  its  name  implies,  it  is  oily,  and  has  a  strong 
odor.  It  acts  with  many  more  times  the  intensity 
of  alcohol.  Whence,  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  fusel  oil,  rather  than  the  alcohol,  contained 
in  cheap  whiskeys,  is  responsible  for  some  cases  at 
least  of  chronic  alcoholism,  particularly  when  we  know 
that  many  inebriates  prefer  the  cheap,  adulterated 
liquors,  as  being  stronger  than  the  better  brands. 

There  are  no  beer  alcoholics;  nor  do  persons  who 
use  alcohol  for  stimulation,  and  not  for  stupefaction, 
become  drunkards. 

In  those  who  lead  sedentary  lives  the  blood  is  un- 
evenly distributed;  there  is  too  much  in  the  internal 
organs  and  too  little  at  the  periphery.  Muscular  work 
draws  the  blood  from  the  internal  organs  to  the 
muscles  and  toward  the  external  surfaces  generally. 
Alcohol  also  sends  the  blood  to  the  surface  of  the  body. 
Hence,  alcohol,  in  so  far  as  sending  the  blood  to  the 
skin  is  concerned,  has  an  effect  similar  to  exercise. 

In  sepsis,  especially  that  resulting  from  diph- 
theria, alcohol  is  the  most  potent  agent  to  combat  it 
that  we  have  (Jacobi).  Its  action  in  diphtheritic  sep- 
tic conditions  is  probably  antiseptic,  although  we  have 
no  exact  knowledge  on  that  point. 

Prompt  administration  of  alcohol  will  abort  a  chill 
by  sending  blood  to  the  surface  of  the  body,  and,  in 
that  way,  may  prevent  an  illness.  Alcohol  will  also 
stimulate  a  heart  temporarily  weakened  by  disease, 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  147 

and  will  relieve  an  anaemic  headache  almost  instantly. 
It  acts  by  dilating  (relaxing)  the  blood  vessels  of  the 
skin  and  brain,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  constricts 
those  of  the  internal  organs,  with  the  single  exception 
of  the  heart,  to  which  it  sends  more,  and  not  less, 
blood. 

Quite  different  from  the  effects  of  alcohol,  are  the 
effects  of  caffeine  and  theine.  The  latter  drugs  con- 
strict the  blood  vessels  of  the  skin,  and  dilate  those  of 
the  stomach.  So,  as  caffeine  (contained  in  coffee)  is 
an  antidote  to  alcohol,  so  is  alcohol  an  antidote  to 
caffeine. 

Probably  owing  to  those  effects  of  caffeine,  heavy 
coffee  drinkers  have  sallow,  muddy  skins;  whereas 
moderate  indulgers  in  alcohol  have  rosy  skins  and 
usually  clear  complexions. 

Hence,  the  modern  business  man,  who  drinks  much 
coffee  and  tea,  and  who  takes  practically  no  active 
exercise,  particularly  needs  alcohol  to  stir  the  stag- 
nant blood  in  his  internal  organs. 

In  this  regard,  Dr.  Starke  advises  that  a  man  drink 
more  alcohol  than  coffee  and  tea ;  that  he  drink  wine 
or  beer  at  dinner,  and  that  he  follow  his  cafe  noir 
with  a  liqueur  or  a  glass  of  cognac.  Should  he,  how- 
ever, avoid  alcohol  altogether,  then  he  should  eschew 
also  coffee  and  tea,  and  embrace  vigorous  exercise. 

A  coffee  and  tea  drinker,  who  is  muscularly  inac- 
tive, has  usually  poor  blood  and  clogged  internal 
organs,  is  nervous,  and  suffers  from  digestive  disor- 
ders and  chronic  constipation.  Should  it  have  hap- 
pened occasionally  that  such  a  person  has  lived  longer 


148     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

than  a  robust  man,  who  is  a  moderate  consumer  of 
alcohol,  his  longer  life  could  hardly  have  been  an 
enviable  one. 

Now,  were  the  manufacture  of  all  alcoholic  bever- 
ages wholly  suppressed,  it  would  be  a  serious  ques- 
tion whether  there  would  not  be  more  disease,  degen- 
eracy and  suffering  than  there  now  are.  For: 

Even  our  arch  alcoholphobe,  Sir  Victor  Horsley, 
says  on  page  148  (Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body), 
that  "the  dilatation  of  the  blood  vessels  of  the  internal 
organs  is  a  matter  of  grave  import,  seeing  that  the 
overengorgement  of  the  internal  organs  with  blood 
leads  slowly  and  surely  to  the  degeneration  of  their 
secreting  protoplasm,  and,  consequently,  to  loss  of 
that  health  and  efficiency  which  must  be  possessed  by 
these  vital  parts  if  life  is  to  be  prolonged. ' ' 

But,  when  Sir  Victor  wrote  the  above,  he  was  labor- 
ing under  the  misapprehension  that  alcohol  could 
cause  "overengorgement  of  the  internal  organs,"  for 
he  had  said  only  a  few  lines  back,  respecting  the  effect 
on  the  skin  of  the  ingestion  of  alcohol:  "The  alco- 
holic dilatation  of  the  vessels  of  the  skin  is  frequently 
an  index  to  the  state  of  the  blood  vessels  of  the  inter- 
nal organs."  The  implication  being  that  because  al- 
cohol dilated  the  blood  vessels  of  the  skin,  it  dilated 
also  those  of  the  internal  organs. 

Such  an  assumption  is  of  course  absurd ;  for,  there 
being  only  a  certain  quantity  of  blood  in  the  body, 
most  of  it  (the  blood)  could  hardly  be  at  the  bodily 
surface  and  within  the  bodily  organs  at  the  same 
time.  Hence,  it  must  be  as  plain  as  that  two  and  two 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  149 

make  four,  that  if  the  veins  at  the  surfaces  of  the 
body  are  dilated  by  alcohol — and  every  one,  including 
Sir  Victor  Horsley,  acknowledges  that  alcohol  has  that 
effect, — then  the  deeper  veins,  namely,  those  of  the 
internal  organs,  must  be  constricted  by  alcohol. 

If  the  point  has  not  yet  pricked,  it  is  necessary  to 
add  only  that  there  is  no  conceivable  method  by  which 
the  blood  could  be  forced  to  the  body  surface  except 
by  constriction  of  the  walls  of  the  deeper  veins; 
any  child  being  able  to  see  that  did  all  veins  remain 
in  equal  states  of  dilatation  the  blood  would  perforce 
remain  evenly  distributed  throughout  the  body. 

Now  most  persons  drink  coffee  and  tea ;  but,  if  the 
ingestion  of  coffee  and  tea  constricts  the  blood  vessels 
of  the  skin,  and  dilates  those  of  the  internal  organs, 
the  latter  become  engorged  with  blood;  and  that,  ac- 
cording to  Sir  Victor  Horsley ',  "is  a  matter  of  grave 
import,  seeing  that  the  overengorgement  of  the  inter- 
nal organs  with  blood  leads  slowly  and  surely  to  the 
degeneration  of  their  secreting  protoplasm,  and,  con- 
sequently, to  loss  of  that  health  and  efficiency  which 
must  be  possessed  by  these  vital  parts  if  life  is  to  be 
prolonged." 

So,  once  again,  after  hearing  the  whole  truth,  we 
arrive  at  the  wholly  different  conclusion  from  that  of 
Sir  Horsley,  that  alcohol,  by  dilating  the  blood  ves- 
sels of  the  skin,  relieves  the  engorgement  or  conges- 
tion of  the  internal  organs,  and  is,  therefore,  espe- 
cially wholesome  for  tea  and  coffee  drinkers,  as  well 
as  for  those  taking  little  active  exercise. 

It  is  said,  and  justly,  that  worry  kills  more  quickly 


150      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

than  work.  To  run  is  less  wearing  upon  the  nervous 
system  even  of  a  horse,  than  continual  champing  at 
the  bit.  We  can  work  with  impunity ;  but  worry  may 
have  injurious  effects.  That  alcohol  allays  anxiety 
and  quiets  nervous  irritability  requires  no  scientific 
demonstration.  Give  a  tired,  cross  man  a  glass  of 
good  ale  when  he  comes  home  at  night,  and,  in  a 
moment,  his  ill-humor  vanishes,  and  he  grows  pleasant, 
affable  and  communicative.  Mothers,  who  worry 
overmuch  about  their  children,  view  childish  pranks 
and  noisy  youthful  exuberance  with  more  tranquility 
after  a  refreshing  glass  of  wine  or  of  beer. 

Scientifically  speaking,  our  annoyance  at  noise  is 
due  to  hyper-excitability  of  our  reflexes  (nervous  re- 
sponses to  stimulation). 

Alcohol  dulls  those  reflexes;  while  coffee  or  tea 
drinking  sharpens  them.  Furthermore,  the  immod- 
erate use  of  caffeine  and  theine  beverages,  by  quicken- 
ing the  perceptive,  conceptive  and  associative  faculties, 
leads  to  overwork,  through  enabling  one  to  do  more 
than  he  could  normally,  without  stimulation;  and 
that  overwork,  when  prolonged,  produces  nervousness, 
insomnia  and  neurasthenia. 

Alcohol  acts  oppositely,  by  soothing  irritation  and 
dulling  sensation  generally — stupefying  to  a  certain 
extent.  But  partial  stupefaction  is  conservative;  for 
that,  by  conducing  to  rest  and  sleep,  institutes  just 
the  conditions  necessary  for  the  processes  of  repair. 

Somewhat  similar  to  the  effect  of  a  large  dose  of 
alcohol  is  that  of  overwhelming  grief.  The  poignancy 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  151 

of  the  shock  of  a  great  calamity,  such  as  the  sudden 
loss  of  a  large  fortune,  or  the  unexpected  death  of  a 
dearly-loved  child  or  companion,  is  usually  and  nor- 
mally followed  by  a  kind  of  numbness  characteristic 
of  despair.  In  that  condition,  we  feel  nothing,  care 
for  nothing,  experience  neither  pleasure  nor  pain,  and 
are  indifferent  as  to  whether  we  live  or  die.  Grad- 
ually, however,  our  apathy  wears  away  and  we  recover 
slowly  our  normal  interest  in  affairs  mundane. 

The  despair  succeeding  grief  is  an  effect  designed 
by  nature  to  protect  our  faculties  and  our  lives.  No 
ordinary  person  feels  acute  mental  anguish  for  long ; 
because  great  pain,  whether  mental  or  physical, 
quickly  deadens  sensation — numbs.  When  one 's  limbs 
are  horribly  crushed  there  is  little  pain,  until  after- 
ward, when  the  limbs  begin  to  recover. 

Now,  when  nothing  effects  us,  our  responses  to  ordi- 
nary and  even  to  extraordinary  stimulations  are  nil; 
and  that  means  complete  mental  and  physical  rest, 
during  which  nature  restores  the  body  to  its  pristine 
vigor. 

And  is  not  the  above  an  argument  in  favor  of  the 
moderate  use  of  alcohol?  We  are  nervous,  tired, 
worn-out  mentally  and  physically,  and  we  want  some- 
thing to  blunt  our  sensations.  We  take  a  glass  of 
wine  and  feel  better;  then  we  sleep,  and  awaken  re- 
freshed, and  why  should  we  not  ? 

Has  any  man,  or  any  group  of  men,  the  right  to  tell 
the  individual  just  how  he  shall  safeguard  his  health  ? 
I  think  he  has  not;  for  the  simple  reason  that  it 


152      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

would  be  impossible  to  enact  any  single  law  of  health 
that  would  be  properly  applicable  to  all  men,  every 
man  being  different. 

When  a  man  turns  to  alcohol  to  " drown"  the  sor- 
row of  some  great  misfortune,  he  is  merely  striving 
to  produce  an  effect  that  Nature  herself  frequently 
produces.  Not  that  I  would  argue  that  sorrows  should 
be  drowned  in  drink — far  from  it. 

But  I  do  maintain  that  when  a  man  or  a  woman  is 
greatly  overwrought,  a  moderate  amount  of  some  light 
alcoholic  beverage  is  not  only  harmless,  but  very  bene- 
ficial, in  that  it  preserves,  by  a  temporary  blunting  of 
both  psychical  and  physical  sensibility,  the  bodily 
powers. 

The  effect  of  alcohol  upon  the  stomach  is  to  stimu- 
late the  secretion  of  gastric  juice.  That  truth  Sir 
Victor  Horsley  acknowledges  on  page  157  (Alcohol 
and  the  Human  Body),  where  he  says:  "Alcohol 
stimulates  the  flow  of  saliva  and  gastric  juice."  Then 
on  page  160  he  says:  " Anything  [referring  to  alco- 
hol] that  depresses  these  gastric  nerves  [He  has  just 
"shown"  that  alcohol  does  that]  enfeebles  the  muscu- 
lar movements  of  the  whole  stomach  and  delays  diges- 
tion." 

So,  according  to  Sir  Victor,  "Alcohol  stimulates  the 
flow  of  saliva  and  gastric  juice";  yet,  that  effect  "de- 
presses these  gastric  nerves,  enfeebles  the  muscular 
movements  of  the  whole  stomach  and  delays  diges- 
tion." (?) 

Again,  on  page  154,  he  informs  us  that  "the  blood 
vessels  of  the  stomach  are  also  sensitive  and  delicate 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  153 

as  those  of  the  eye " ;  and  that,  therefore,  if  we  put  a 
drop  of  brandy  into  the  stomach,  it  will  smart  as 
severely  as  though  we  had  dropped  it  into  the  eye. 

Perhaps ;  but,  though  I  am  not  partial  to  brandy,  I 
would  rather  risk  a  drop  of  it  in  my  stomach  than  in 
my  eye.  Still,  the  reader  may  try  the  ''simple"  ex- 
periment if  he  wishes. 

I  confess  myself  unable  to  follow  Sir  Victor  Hors- 
ley's  reasoning. 

There  is  a  widespread  notion  that  the  drinking  of 
liquids,  alcoholic  or  otherwise,  with  meals,  dilutes  the 
gastric  juice,  and  thus  retards  digestion.  That  is  so 
only  when  an  excessive  quantity  of  liquid  is  consumed. 
No  food  can  be  assimilated  before  it  has  been  lique- 
fied by  the  juices  of  the  body.  That  is  why  Nature 
prompts  us  to  drink  while,  or  directly  after,  eating. 

If  a  piece  of  meat  is  put  into  a  test  tube  containing 
gastric  juice,  the  digestion  of  the  meat  will  begin,  con- 
tinue for  a  time,  and  then  stop.  If  water  is  now 
added,  the  digestion  of  the  meat  will  immediately  re- 
commence— an  experiment  showing  very  prettily  how 
water  stimulates  digestion. 

The  moderate  drinking  of  wine,  therefore,  or  of  ale, 
or  of  beer,  at  meals,  is  a  valuable  aid  to  digestion,  not 
only  because  of  the  alcohol,  but  also  owing  to  the  water 
it  contains. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  rapidity  with  which  alcohol 
is  oxidized  within  the  body;  and,  of  course,  the 
more  oxygen  is  supplied,  through  the  lungs,  the  more 
alcohol  can  be  oxidized.  That  point  is  interesting,  as 
it  explains  how  longshoremen,  furniture  movers,  and 


154     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

other  hard-working  men  can  often  drink  large 
amounts  of  alcohol,  with  apparently  no  harmful  ef- 
fects. Their  heavy  muscular  work,  with  its  neces- 
sitated increased  intake  of  oxygen,  enables  them  to 
burn  up  and  to  utilize  amounts  of  alcohol  that  would 
intoxicate  those  less  active. 

Professor  Atwater  proved  that  alcohol  is  oxidized 
in  the  body  up  to  98  per  cent.  "But,"  says  Ernest 
Gordon,  "if  there  is  here  a  fuel  value,  it  is  an  inade- 
quate one,  since  the  temperature  of  the  body  falls 
when  this  firing  is  used.  The  blood  vessels  of  the 
skin,  expanded  under  alcohol  action,  let  the  warmth 
escape." 

We  agree ;  and  it  is  that  property  of  alcohol  which 
makes  it  valuable  to  lower  the  temperature  of  the 
body,  particularly  when  its  bare  surface  is  exposed. 
Indeed,  alcohol  has  been  found  most  useful  to  employ 
both  externally  and  internally  in  cases  of  high  fever. 

"Further,"  avers  the  same  author,  "the  burning  of 
alcohol  in  the  body  withdraws  oxygen  from  the  tissues 
and  hinders  the  oxidation  of  other  supplies  in  the 
organism,  especially  of  the  fats.  Unburnt  pathologi- 
cal [diseased]  fat  is,  in  this  way,  deposited  in  the  most 
various  parts  of  the  body. ' ' 

Terrible  if  true ;  and,  if  untrue,  a  terrible  untruth. 
We  have  already  shown  that  such  a  statement  has  no 
basis  of  fact.  The  reader  will  not  fail  to  notice,  how- 
ever, how  popular  that  oxygen-devouring  quality  of 
alcohol,  with  its  dire  consequences,  is  with  the  Anti- 
Alcoholists. 

If  the  body  is  in  good  condition,  owing  to  a  sensible 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  155 

mixture  of  nutrients,  it  seems  to  prefer  to  use  fat  and 
carbohydates,  in  order  to  save  albumin;  and,  in  an 
experiment  of  supplying  alcohol  instead  of  carbohy- 
drates, the  body  used  the  alcohol,  as  formerly  it  had 
used  the  carbohydrates.  Moreover,  the  final  result 
was  the  same  as  when  the  carbohydrates  had  been 
used ;  the  organism  saving1  about  the  same  quantity  of 
albumin. 

That  alcohol  is  very  easily  digested  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  the  carbohydrates  can  not  be  digested  as 
such,  but  only  after  they  have  been  changed  into 
sugar  and  finally  into  alcohol. 

The  effect  of  alcohol  upon  the  muscle  proper  de- 
pends upon  the  amount  administered ;  a  little  alcohol 
enabling  the  muscle  to  work  longer  than  normally, 
while  a  large  amount  is  detrimental  to  its  full  effi- 
ciency. 

"Alcohol,"  says  Starke,  "does  not  exercise  a  nox- 
ious influence  upon  the  organs,  when  taken  in  rational 
quantities." — Nature  teaches  us  that  when  she  forms 
alcohol  within  the  body. 

Prohibitionists  call  alcohol  a  poison,  because  it ' '  dis- 
turbs" function.  The  truth  is  that  it  alters  func- 
tion. Neither  is  that  property  peculiar  to  alcohol. 
Many  other  substances,  known  to  be  not  only  harmless, 
but  necessary,  alter  function.  The  proteins,  carbo- 
hydrates, hydrocarbons  (fats),  milk,  and  even  water, 
alter  functions.  That  is  why  we  take  them.  We 
change  every  moment,  and  we  must  repair  the  damages 
due  to  those  changes  by  introducing  periodically 
various  kinds  of  extrinsic,  afterward  becoming  intrin- 


156      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

sic,  substances. — Breathing  causes  profound  changes. 

Again,  Prohibitionists  will  say  "paralyze,"  when 
they  mean  simply  "reduce."  While  the  choice  of 
terms  is  a  mere  matter  of  taste  it  is  noticeable  that  the 
enemies  of  alcohol,  instead  of  choosing  words  express- 
ing truly  their  ideas,  select  those  used  generally  in  a 
"bad"  sense. 

When  we  are  overtired,  and  our  nervous  tension  is 
high,  we  take  some  alcohol  to  reduce  the  tension;  but 
no  Anti-Alcoholist  would  use  " reduce"  in  such  a 
sense:  He  would  select  "paralyze,"  for  its  sinister 
implication.  Moreover,  he  delights  in  speaking  of 
alcohol's  "narcotic"  effects,  knowing  well  that  "nar- 
cotic" suggests  ether  and  chloroform. 

If  alcohol  "narcotizes,"  so  do  muscular  work, 
fatigue,  wholesome  food,  grief,  darkness  and  quiet, 
narcotize.  But  we  would  say  they  were  sedatives 
and  induced  functional  rest. 

How  often  are  our  prejudices  revealed  by  our 
choice  of  words!  When  a  college  boy,  whose  father 
happens  to  be  a  millionaire,  gets  drunk,  disturbs  the 
peace,  or  steals  a  sign,  it  is  a  "  prank. "  If  a  man,  out 
of  work,  seizes  a  stale  loaf  of  bread  for  his  starving 
family,  he  is  a  "thief,"  and  is  sent  to  the  "Island." 
A  beloved  boy  is  "full  of  animal  spirits";  a  disliked 
boy  is  "a  little  devil."  A  poor  man  is  a  "crank" 
and  a  "grouch";  one  rich  and  famous  has  "the  ec- 
centricities of  genius. ' ' — And  so  it  goes. 

But  let  us  return  to  alcohol.  Experimentation 
aside,  everyone,  who  drinks  moderately,  knows  that 
alcohol  has  an  exhilarating  effect  upon  the  nervous 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  157 

system.  A  secondary  effect  is  a  deadening  of  sensi- 
bility to  matters  outside  our  main  thoughts  for  the 
moment.  It  is  true  that  the  laboratories  tell  us  that 
alcohol  does  not  exhilarate  us ;  but  we  do  not  care  for 
laboratories.  We  feel  that  we  are  exhilarated,  and 
that  suffices. 

That  alcohol  has  a  stimulating  effect  does  not  require 
scientific,  or  pseudo-scientific  proof.  Our  very  lan- 
guage shows  it.  "We  say  a  man  is  " sober,"  meaning 
that  he  is  quiet  and  serious.  A  tipsy  man  is  not 
"sober"  in  any  sense,  but  lively,  talkative,  silly,  and 
sometimes  aggressive. 

It  is  curious  that,  while  alcohol  stimulates  the 
thinking  and  creative  faculties,  it  dulls  the  percep- 
tive ones,  not  by  ''paralyzing"  the  latter,  but  by  so 
intensifying  absorption  in  what  is  occupying  the  mind 
for  the  moment,  that  little  or  no  attention  is  given 
elsewhere.  Thus  alcohol  concentrates  attention  upon 
one  theme,  which  may  explain  the  greater  force  and 
brilliance  of  certain  writers  and  speakers  after  a  few 
glasses  of  wine. 

Occasionally  such  concentration  is  not  desirable. 
For  example,  a  poet,  whose  natural  bent  was  imagery 
and  rhetorical  expression,  might  not  run  a  swift-mov- 
ing automobile  so  carefully  after  indulgence  in  alco- 
hol; as,  while  thinking  of  an  effective  distich,  he 
might  collide  with  a  telegraph  pole. — There  are  times 
when  alcohol  should  not  be  taken. 

It  is  generally  known  that  soldiers  in  the  heat  of 
battle  do  not  feel  even  severe  wounds. 

Excitation  of  the  brain,  whether  by  alcohol,  fight- 


158      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

ing,  or  intense  concentration  of  the  mind,  diminishes 
reflex  sensibility. 

Regarding  alcohol's  general  physical  effects  in  a  hot 
climate,  I  quote  the  following  extraordinary  nar- 
ration : 

"Fergusson  [Notes  and  Recollections,  1846]  saw  at 
St.  Domingo  the  67th  Regiment  march  a  few  miles  in 
a  dry  rocky  country,  the  men  having  had  a  full  rum 
ration  issued  to  them.  Very  many  fell  out,  nineteen 
died  actually  on  the  road,  and  the  remainder  arrived 
'in  an  indescribable  condition  of  exhaustion/  "  1 

Surely,  Dr.  Pergusson,  whose  statement  is  approv- 
ingly quoted  by  Sir  Horsley,  meant  that  the  regiment 
marched,  not  ua  few  miles,"  but  a  few  hundred  miles, 
without  pausing  to  eat,  drink  or  breathe.  Otherwise 
it  is  incredible  that  nineteen  picked  men  dropped  dead 
in  their  tracks,  and  the  remainder  arrived  "in  an  in- 
describable condition  of  exhaustion. " — All  because  a 
full  rum  ration  had  been  issued  to  them ! 

Not  that  I  would  impugn  the  veracity  of  Dr.  Fer- 
gusson ;  but  I  resent  that  any  man  should  expect  his 
hearers  to  believe  that  a  full  rum  ration,  even  though 
aided  by  a  tropical  sun,  could  have  been  primarily 
responsible  for  so  many  sudden  deaths. 

Let  us  see.  A  regiment  consists  usually  of  ten  com- 
panies; and  a  company  is  made  up  of  from  sixty  to 
one  hundred  men.  Hence  the  regiment  mentioned 
could  have  consisted  of  no  more  than  one  thousand 

i  Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body,  p.  295,  by  Sir  Victor 
Horsley,  M.D. 


EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  159 

men.  So,  during  the  march  of  those  "few  miles," 
the  regiment's  death-rate  was  nearly  two  per  cent. 

Shade  of  Bacchus!  Each  man  would  better  have 
undergone  a  major  surgical  operation,  than  have 
quaffed  a  full  rum  ration  before  walking  his  "few 
miles. ' ' 

Seriously,  I  do  not  doubt  that  nineteen  men,  out  of 
the  complement  of  one  thousand,  died.  The  assertion, 
however,  that  one  "full  rum  ration,"  taken  just  be,- 
fore  a  "march  of  a  few  miles  in  a  dry,  rocky  country/' 
was  the  cause  of  every  one  of  those  nineteen  deaths, 
is  so  preposterous  that  I  would  not  waste  time  and 
space  discussing  it,  were  I  not  desirous  of  showing 
my  readers  how  many  Anti-Alcoholists,  including 
some  who  are  eminent,  misrepresent,  by  innuendo, 
when  not  directly,  the  physical  effects  of  alcohol. 
Instead,  let  us  have  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth. 

But  not  yet  is  Sir  Victor  Horsley  content  with  the 
degree  of  dire  dread  of  alcohol  which  he  believes  he 
has  inspired  in  all  drinkers;  for  on  page  300  of  his 
book,  we  read  shudderingly  of  the  truly  fearful  effects 
of  the  venom  of  snakes.  The  connection  between 
snake  venom  and  alcohol  we  shall  discern  presently. 

A  frightful  picture  Sir  Victor  draws  when  he  re- 
morselessly turns  us  inside  out  that  we  may  see  better 
what  takes  place  while  the  snake  poison  circulates 
lethally  in  our  doomed  veins.  And  now  comes  the 
"connection." 

"These  lethal  agencies  in  snake  venom,"  the  Doctor 


160     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

continues  grimly,  "thus  exert  injuries  on  the  system 
parallel  in  every  way  [Italics  mine]  to  those  caused 
by  alcohol,  chloroform,  etc/' 

Gadzooks !  Methinks  that  in  the  brain  of  even  my 
alcoholized  organism  the  moral  glimmers :  Better  far 
to  be  bitten  by  a  venomous  snake  than  to  drink  one 
glass  of  beer  ? — Honesta  mors  turpi  vita  potior. 

Returning  now  to  sanity,  we  conclude  that  alcohol 
in  moderation;  that  is,  in  the  form  of  mild  alcoholic 
beverages,  such  as,  beer,  ales,  light  wines,  etc.,  so  far 
from  being  injurious,  produces  no  unpleasant  action 
or  reaction  whatsoever,  but  increases  appetite,  invig- 
orates digestion,  and  favors  repair. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

ALCOHOL,   LIFE  INSURANCE  AND   LONGEVITY 

LIFE  insurance  companies  assert  that  abstainers  live 
longer  than  drinkers.  Such  a  statement  from  such 
a  source  deserves  serious  consideration.  First,  we 
know  that  the  average  span  of  life  for  man  has,  within 
the  last  decade,  materially  been  lengthened ;  and  also, 
that  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  beverages  in  general, 
throughout  the  United  States,  is  now,  approximately, 
two  thousand  million  gallons,  yearly.  Yet  has  man's 
life  been  prolonged.  But  that  may  have  been  in  spite 
of,  and  not  because  of,  alcohol.  At  all  events,  let  the 
point  pass.  It  will  be  fairest  and  most  instructive  to 
discuss  this  question  from  all  angles. 

Suppose  the  Life  Insurance  Companies  have 
proved  by  figures  that  drinkers  have  not  lived  so  long 
as  abstainers,  they  have  not  proved  alcohol  responsible 
for  the  drinkers'  shorter  lives.  They  have  shown 
merely  that  men  of  the  type  who  drink  have,  as  a 
rule,  died  sooner  than  those  of  the  type  who  do  not 
drink. 

The  crucial  question,  therefore,  is  not  whether  or 
not  abstainers  live  longer  than  drinkers;  it  is,  would 
men,  who  feel  the  need  of  alcohol,  live  longer,  did  they 
resist  that  need,  and  not  drink? 

That  question,  of  course,  can  not  be  answered  posi- 
161 


162      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

lively.  Nevertheless,  I  shall  attempt  to  show  that  it  is 
at  least  extremely  doubtful  that  such  men,  particu- 
larly those  of  nervous  type,  who  now  drink  moder- 
ately, would  be  either  healthier  or  longer  lived  should 
they  resist  violently  their  alcoholic  need,  and  forswear 
drinking  absolutely. 

Usually  drinkers  are  not  so  careful  of  their  health 
as  non-drinkers.  They  keep  later  hours,  smoke  more, 
eat  more,  are  fuller-blooded,  and  enjoy  more  of  the 
good  things  of  life  generally. 

Among  poets,  prose  writers,  musicians,  artists,  ac- 
tors, and  other  intellectuals,  who  work  hard  mentally, 
many  drink  more  or  less.  They  become  "wornout," 
and  crave  a  stimulant  to  overcome  their  "nervous" 
fatigue.  Naturally  they  take  alcohol ;  and  there  is  no 
proof  that,  were  beings  of  high-strung  and  intensely 
nervous  temperament  deprived  of  alcohol,  they  would 
be  better  off  or  would  live  longer.  They  drink,  be- 
cause they  feel  the  need  of  it ;  and,  if  they  could  not 
drink,  perhaps  their  irregular  hours  for  working,  eat- 
ing, and  sleeping,  would  kill  them  sooner. 

The  same  is  true  of  those  who  work  overhard  physi- 
cally— longshoremen,  truckmen,  furniture  movers,  iron 
workers.  They,  too,  feel  the  need  of  alcohol,  but 
these  more  from  physical,  than  from  nervous,  exhaus- 
tion ;  and  they  also  might  not  be  able  to  withstand  so 
well  the  strain  of  their  killing  work,  were  alcohol 
denied  them.  Their  practical  experience — though 
at  variance  with  the  findings  of  the  laboratories — is 
that,  without  alcohol,  they  would  sooner  succumb  to 
the  fatigues  incident  to  their  laborious  occupations. 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     163 

Now,  it  may  be  a  fact  that  nervous,  highly-strung 
persons  who  work  very  hard  mentally,  and  who  drink, 
and  big  powerful  men,  who  work  very  hard  physically, 
and  who  drink,  do  not  live  quite  so  long  as  do  those 
who  live  more  easily,  and  who  do  not  drink.  Yet 
what  warrant  have  we  for  assuming  that,  because  most 
of  those  men  happen  to  drink  more  or  less,  their  lives 
are  shortened  by  the  alcohol  rather  than  by  their 
strenuous  work  ?  Nay,  may  it  not  well  be  that  alcohol 
prevents  the  constant  work  under  high  tension  from 
still  more  weakening  their  health  and  curtailing  their 
usefulness. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  men  who  drink  are  different 
nervously  and  muscularly  from  those  who  do  not 
drink ;  and  that  difference  engenders  in  the  drinker  a 
multitude  of  habits,  besides  the  habit  of  drinking, 
which  are  not  peculiar  to  the  non-drinker.  So  that, 
whether  the  drinker's  life  is  shortened — if  it  is 
shortened — by  his  one  habit  of  drinking,  by  his  con- 
comitant habits,  or  by  his  temperamental  makeup, 
would  be  difficult  to  determine. 

Why  it  is  that  men  of  great  talent,  or  even  genius, 
should  be  partial  to  alcohol,  we  can  not  say.  And 
neither  can  we  say  that,  without  alcohol,  their  work 
would  be  better,  or  that  they  themselves  would  be 
healthier.  Some  affirm  that  they  would;  but  such 
have  not  the  sublime  modesty  of  that  great  agnostic, 
with  superintellect,  Herbert  Spencer,  who,  when  ques- 
tioned as  to  his  belief  in  a  future  life,  answered  sim- 
ply: "I  affirm  nothing;  I  deny  nothing;  I  do  not 
know." 


164     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

The  points  argued  and  the  evidence  presented  so 
far  in  this  book  seem  to  show  more  or  less  conclu- 
sively that  alcohol,  when  used  moderately,  is  not  harm- 
ful, but,  in  many  cases,  beneficial.  We  believe,  with 
John  Fiske,  that  "Alcohol  diminishes  the  friction  of 
living,  and  bridges  over  the  pitfalls  which  the  com- 
plicated exigencies  of  modern  life  are  constantly  dig- 
ging for  us. ' ' 

And  suppose  we  consider  human  experience,  ignor- 
ing statistics,  which  are  unreliable,  and  laboratory 
experiments,  which  are  conflicting,  is  it  quite  reason- 
able we  should  be  asked  to  believe  that  a  substance, 
which  nearly  all  persons  use,  and  have  used  from 
time  immemorial,  for  stimulation,  comfort,  and  sur- 
cease from  their  sorrows,  is  a  poison  destructive  to 
our  life,  health  and  happiness? 

Reformers  who  talk  confidently  of  the  immense 
benefit  to  humanity  of  National  Prohibition,  forget 
that  there  will  always  remain  in  the  world  millions 
who  will  still  crave  alcohol.  That  cut  off,  they  will 
perforce  take  something  else,  which  formerly  they 
would  not  take,  because  they  deemed  alcohol  the  less 
destructive  of  the  two.  Does  the  reformer  think  that 
result,  and  it  is  logical,  would  be  a  benefit  ? 

Natural  instinct  can  be  trusted  somewhat ;  and  it  is 
probably  that  those  who  do  not  drink,  should  not,  and 
that  those  who  do  drink  may  be  obeying  a  natural  need 
which  ought  to  be  satisfied. 

If  it  be  true  that  nervous,  hard-working  persons  who 
drink,  are  likely  to  die,  as  a  rule,  a  few  years  sooner 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     165 

than  abstainers — and  the  Insurance  Companies  claim 
that  they  may  die  only  one  or  two  years  sooner — they 
might,  for  all  we  know,  die  still  sooner,  should  they, 
with  their  peculiar  nervous  temperament,  abstain 
also. 

Lives  experiencing  no  need  of  stimulants  probably 
waste  less  rapidly,  and,  for  that  reason,  may  be  more 
lasting  than  those  continually  sapped  by  constant 
tip-toe  wear  and  tear. 

Again,  the  very  fact  that  a  man  abstains  from  alco- 
hol suggests  that  he  abstains  also  from  too  much  food ; 
and  as  few  men  take  sufficient  exercise,  abstinence 
from  overeating  has  doubtless  considerable  to  do,  too, 
with  the  prolongation  of  the  abstainer's  life.  More- 
over, as  we  have  already  said,  the  abstainer  is  likely 
to  be  especially  careful  of  his  health  generally.  As 
a  rule,  he  does  not  smoke,  and  he  is  moderate  in  all 
animal  indulgences.  In  a  word,  many  abstainers  live 
on  a  comparatively  low  plane;  and  a  low  plane  may 
mean  a  long  life. 

Really,  taking  into  consideration  accomplishment 
and  usefulness,  it  would  seem  better  to  have  lived 
vigorously  and  effectively  a  slightly  fewer  number  of 
years,  than  to  have  lived  sedately,  carefully,  and  long, 
but  to  less  purpose.  Of  course  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
that  there  are  not  many  abstainers  who  are  leading 
capable,  useful  and  noble  lives;  but — speaking  gen- 
erally— of  the  men  who  have  accomplished  most,  the 
majority  have  been  at  least  moderate  drinkers. 

Let  us  now  discuss  more  in   detail  whether   ab- 


166      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

stainers,  during  their  alleged  protracted  existence, 
look  healthier,  feel  better,  are  stronger  and  accomplish 
more. 

It  is  well  known  that  certain  invalids  live  long :  also 
that  delicate  persons  often  cling  to  their  slender  hold 
on  life  with  astonishing  pertinacity.  Cornaro  lived 
longer  than  a  century  by  observing  a  rigorous  diet 
that  would  hardly  have  satisfied  a  professed  ascetic. 
His  death  is  said  to  have  been  caused  by  his  exceeding 
his  strict  menu  one  day  by  a  few  ounces.  A  famous 
ascetic  lived  to  a  great  age  upon  a  diet  of  bread  and 
water  alone. 

All  which  suggests  that  mere  length  may  not  be 
life's  most  important  asset.  Certainly  Cornaro  and 
the  long  lived  ascetics  were  not  extraordinarily  pro- 
ficient or  efficient  during  their  prolonged  existences. 
Some  turtles  live  for  hundreds  of  years ;  but  who  would 
be  a  turtle?  The  natives  of  the  Balkan  peninsula, 
comprising  Servia,  Roumania  and  Bulgaria  are 
famous  for  their  longevity  and  number  of  centena- 
rians, but  not  for  anything  else.  A  raw-boned,  sorry- 
looking  nag  may  live  as  long  as,  or  longer  than,  a 
sleek  race-horse,  or  a  broad-chested  strong  draft  ani- 
mal ;  still,  the  nag  is  worth  little. 

A  powerful  body,  a  robust  appetite  and  a  healthy 
look  add  greatly  to  the  zest  of  life,  as  well  as  to  effi- 
cient daily  accomplishment ;  yet  such  an  one  may  have 
a  subtle  defect  in  some  organ  or  a  weak  spot  in  one 
of  his  arterial  walls  which  may  cause  him  to  die  sooner 
than  many  of  his  weaker  and  less  efficient  neighbors. 
Indeed,  the  robust  live  so  much  more  intensely  than  do 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     167 

the  sickly  and  delicate  that,  in  some  cases,  owing  to 
their  high  health  and  not  to  alcohol,  they  may  not  live 
quite  so  many  years. 

Mere  muscular  strength,  therefore,  while  highly  de- 
sirable and  admirable,  does  not  guarantee  a  long  life. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  strong  live  more  strongly 
and  get  more  out  of  life  than  do  the  frail,  who  are 
often  valetudinarians.  Afraid  to  work  or  to  eat,  to 
drink  or  even  to  smoke,  the  latter 's  mere  existence  is 
usually  miserable.  On  the  other  hand,  persons  with 
a  large  stock  of  health  are  not  extraordinarily  careful 
of  themselves,  because  they  feel  that  in  their  case 
great  care  is  not  necessary.  Hence  the  healthy  are 
more  likely  to  drink  and  to  smoke  than  are  the  un- 
healthy whose  condition  obliges  them  to  be  careful. 

Soon  we  shall  see  just  why  the  healthy  may  live  no 
longer  than,  and  sometimes  not  so  long  as,  the  delicate ; 
and  that  often  their  superabundant  health  may  itself 
bring  about  their  demise,  irrespective  of  whether  they 
drink  alcoholic  beverages  or  not. 

To  take  another  animal  than  man.  It  is  conceiv- 
able that  extra  feeds  of  oats  would  make  an  underfed 
horse  more  efficient,  without  having  the  ultimate  effect 
of  much  prolonging  his  life.  Many  sorry  "nags"  live 
to  a  good  old  age. 

So,  men  and  women  may  take  beer,  ale,  or  stout 
with  their  meals  and,  if  undernourished,  the  ef- 
fect would  be  augmented  appetite  and  greater  en- 
joyment, accompanied,  of  course,  by  an  increased 
consumption  of  wholesome  food.  Thus  the  imme- 
diate result  would  be  increased  efficiency,  if  not  from 


168     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

the  beer  directly,  then  at  least  from  the  beer  in- 
directly, through  improved  appetite  and  gustatory 
pleasure.  But,  in  the  cases  we  are  supposing,  would 
life  insurance  statistics,  purporting  to  show  that  mod- 
erate beer  drinkers  were  not  quite  so  long-lived  as 
abstainers,  change  by  an  iota  the  salient  fact  that  a 
moderate  consumption  of  beer  with  meals  resulted  in 
a  present  gain  in  health  and  efficiency?  I  believe 
they  would  not. 

When  we  compare  macroscopically,  and  not  micro- 
scopically, the  respective  physiques  of  moderate 
drinkers  and  non-drinkers,  in  which  class  do  we  find 
the  greater  number  of  robust  persons  ? 

The  answer  may  well  be  left  to  the  reader's  own 
observation  and  experience ;  but  at  least  it  is  true  that 
moderate  beer-drinkers  are  usually  well-nourished  and 
strong,  as  compared  with  teetotalers,  many  of  whom, 
through  weak  digestion,  fear  to  drink  even  one  glass 
of  good  beer. 

Look  at  the  sturdy  Germans  who  have  drunk  beer 
from  childhood,  or  at  the  strapping  Irish  whose  tonic 
par  excellence  is  Guinness'  Stout. 

Every  one  has,  of  course,  many  erroneous  ideas. 
One  is  that  disease  attacks  chiefly  the  delicate  and 
weak  and  leaves  almost  untouched  the  robust  and 
strong.  Herbert  Spencer,  the  great  philosopher  of 
modern  science,  taught  that  doctrine:  That  the  in- 
fectious diseases  kill  the  people  who,  for  the  good  of 
the  race,  ought  to  die ;  that  they  weeded  out  the  unfit. 

Yet,  that  is  not  always  the  case;  nor  is  it  true  of 
all  diseases.  Moreover,  the  strong,  when  attacked  by 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     169 

disease,  often — to  use  a  popular  phrase — take  the  dis- 
ease hard,  and  succumb  more  quickly  than  do  the 
frail,  when  attacked  by  the  same  disease.  Why  this 
is  so  we  shall  see  presently. 

Dr.  Victor  C.  Vaughan,  an  able  and  celebrated 
physician  and  scientist,  had  heard  that  typhoid  fever 
attacked  by  preference  the  weak  and  physically  unfit. 
That  dictum  Dr.  Vaughan  neither  believed  nor  dis- 
believed but,  like  a  true  scientist,  he  investigated  to 
find  out  the  truth. 

Dr.  Vaughan,  however,  admits  that,  when  he  began 
to  study  typhoid  fever  in  the  American  army  in  1898, 
he  was  impressed  with  the  popular  idea  that  the  less 
robust  men  would  furnish  the  larger  number  of  cases 
of  typhoid  fever,  and  that  the  case  mortality  of  these 
comparatively  feeble  ones  would  be  very  great.  * '  For 
that  reason/'  says  Dr.  Vaughan,  "we  decided,  al- 
though it  meant  a  great  deal  of  work,  to  trace  back 
the  medical  history  of  every  man  who  had  had  typhoid 
fever  as  far  as  we  could.  With  many  of  the  regular 
soldiers  this  was  possible.  We  carried  all  back  to  the 
time  of  enlistment,  and  in  the  regular  army  this  meant 
a  good  many  years  on  an  average.  We  expected  to 
find  that  the  weaklings,  so  far  as  there  are  weaklings 
in  the  Army,  had  typhoid  fever  and  that  they  died 
from  it.  So  we  collected  a  vast  amount  of  information 
trying  to  prove  this  thing.  Before  we  got  half-way 
through  it  was  quite  evident  that  it  proved  just  the 
opposite  thing. 

"Out  of  16,000  men  who  were  under  health — who 
had  been  frequently  on  sick  report — about  7  per  cent. 


170     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

of  them  had  typhoid  fever.  Out  of  42,000  men,  who 
were  never  on  sick  report,  and  who  had  practically 
never  been  ill  in  their  lives,  some  18  per  cent,  had 
typhoid  fever,  and  that  wasn't  the  most  striking  thing. 
Over  90  per  cent,  of  the  men  who  died  of  typhoid 
fever  were  men  who  had  never  been  seriously  ill. 

"But  why  is  it,"  Dr.  Vaughan  asks,  "  that  the  case 
mortality  is  more  among  the  robust  than  it  is  among 
the  weak?"  And  he  answers:  l 'Because  for  the 
very  good  reason  that  the  robust  man  puts  up  a  big 
fight  against  the  infectious  disease,  and  he  either  over- 
comes it  speedily  or,  what  is  more  likely  to  happen, 
nature  overdoes  the  thing,  kills  off  the  bacteria  too 
rapidly  and  death  results."1 

Quite  naturally  Dr.  Vaughan  and  his  associate  in- 
vestigators concluded  it  was  their  discovery  that 
typhoid  fever  kills  off  the  robust  rather  than  the  weak 
— until  they  read  the  history  of  the  plague,  by  Thu- 
cydides,  five  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era, 
in  which  "the  fairest,  the  strongest  and  most  robust" 
furnished  the  greatest  number  of  victims. 

One  old  Irish  writer,  about  three  hundred  years 
ago,  describing  an  epidemic  of  typhus  fever,  says: 
"It  went  through  the  country  picking  out  the  strong- 
est, the  most  robust,  just  as  you  or  I  would  go  through 
a  flock  of  sheep  picking  out  the  best. ' ' 

Another  Irish  writer  points  to  the  fact  that  among 
the  poorly-nourished,  the  institutionally-fed,  the  mor- 

iA  Biological  Concept  of  the  Structure  of  the  Protein 
Molecule,  by  Victor  C.  Vaughan,  M.D.,  Long  Island  Medical 
Journal,  May,  1916. 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     171 

tality  from  typhus  fever  in  Ireland  was  but  one  out  of 
twenty-three ;  whereas,  among  the  doctors,  the  nurses 
and  those  who  dispensed  charity,  that  is,  the  well- 
nourished  and  healthy,  the  death-rate  from  the  same 
disease  was  one  out  of  three. 

The  infectious  diseases,  like  war,  kill  off  the 
strongest,  the  most  vigorous,  the  most  robust,  and, 
like  war,  they  lead  to  the  deterioration  of  nations. 
We  should  have,  therefore,  no  compunctions  in  doing 
all  we  can  to  stamp  out  the  infectious  diseases. 

It  will  be  interesting  now  to  make  plain  just  why 
certain  infectious  diseases,  like  typhoid  fever,  are 
more  fatal  to  the  strong  than  to  the  weak. 

The  period  of  incubation  of  typhoid  fever  is  from 
eight  to  ten  days.  During  that  period  of  incubation, 
before  the  disease  is  manifested,  the  patient  is  not  ill ; 
in  fact,  he  often  feels  unusually  well.  Yet  it  is  then 
that  the  typhoid  bacilli  within  him  are  multiplying 
with  enormous  rapidity,  and  still  they  do  him  no 
harm.  But,  after  about  eight  days,  the  body  cells  be- 
gin to  learn  how  to  destroy  the  invading  organisms, 
and  quite  suddenly  they  attack  them  vigorously. 
Then  the  trouble  begins;  and  the  symptoms  and 
lesions  of  the  disease  are  due  to  the  rapid  destruction 
of  the  bacteria  by  the  cells  of  the  body. 

Now  the  body  cells  of  a  strong,  vigorous  man  are 
more  numerous  and  husky  than  are  those  of  a  weak- 
ling, and  consequently  the  former's  body  cells  kill 
many  more  bacteria  in  a  given  time.  Of  course  that 
seems  desirable,  and  would  be  so,  were  it  not  for  the 
fact  that  the  destruction  of  the  bacteria  by  the  body 


172      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

cells  liberates  a  poison,  to  which,  as  we  have  said,  the 
symptoms  and  lesions  of  the  disease  are  due.  In  the 
case  of  a  very  vigorous  man,  nature  frequently  be- 
comes too  eager  and  overdoes;  in  fine,  she  kills  so 
many  bacteria  in  so  short  a  time  that  she  kills  the  host 
also — the  unfortunate  man. 

From  the  foregoing  we  conclude  that  if,  as  Dr. 
Vaughan's  careful  investigations  have  shown,  it  is 
true  that  the  strong  and  healthy  are,  as  it  were  shining 
lights  for  the  infectious  diseases,  it  may  be  that  the 
slightly  less  average  expectation  of  life  by  the  mod- 
erate drinkers  may  be  owing  more  than  occasionally 
to  their  excess  of  vigor  rather  than  to  their  mild  in- 
dulgence in  alcohol;  the  vigorous  and  strong  being 
more  likely  to  drink  and  to  smoke  than  the  delicate 
who  are  often  so  solicitous  of  their  health  as  to  be 
afraid  to  do  almost  anything. 

Here  the  reader  may  exclaim:  "What!  Is 
strength,  then,  detrimental  to  long  life?"  The  reply 
is  that,  in  certain  cases,  it  may  be;  while,  in  other 
cases,  it  may  be  just  the  opposite. 

But,  in  any  event,  strength  is  not  detrimental  to 
either  mental  or  physical  efficiency  during  life-,  and, 
without  health  and  strength,  life  is  usually  such  a 
burden  that  its  prolongation  is  only  punishment. 

So  the  question  we  started  out  with  resolves  itself 
into  this:  If  moderate  drinking  does  not  positively 
favor  longevity — and  I  do  not  say  it  does  not,  but 
quite  the  contrary — is  moderate  drinking  conducive  to 
greater  immediate  health,  happiness  and  efficiency  ? 

That  question  has,  I  hope,  been  already  answered 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     173 

satisfactorily.  Nevertheless  permit  me  to  append  the 
following  facts,  which  are  history:  Turkey,  whose 
prowess  in  the  present  world  war,  either  in  strategic 
achievements  or  in  force  of  arms,  has  not  astonished 
mankind,  is  a  non-alcoholic  nation  dominated  by  Ger- 
many; China  is  a  non-alcoholic  nation,  famed  more 
for  its  opium  than  for  its  progressiveness,  and  China 
was  severely  beaten  by  Japan  some  few  years  ago. 

Finally,  let  us  look  at  Belgium,  with  a  population  of 
only  about  8,000,000.  The  Belgians  are  the  greatest 
beer  drinkers  in  the  world,  consuming  three  times  as 
much  beer  per  caput  as  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  Yet  at  Liege  100,000  heroic  Belgians  dis- 
played sufficient  efficiency  to  meet  successfully  three 
times  their  number  of  Germans,  inflicting  a  loss  ad- 
mitted by  Germany  to  total  42,714  and  paralyzed  for 
thirteen  days,  according  to  General  LeClercq,  mili- 
tary member  of  the  Belgian  commission,  ' '  the  invasion 
which  after  forty  years  of  preparation  was  expected 
to  be  irresistible." 

Now  how  do  the  figures  of  the  Life  Insurance  Com- 
panies agree  with  our  reasoning? 

The  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company  shows  that 
among  those  who  had  taken  * '  cures ' '  for  chronic  alco- 
holism, but  were  temperate  at  the  time  of  their  ac- 
ceptance, the  extra  mortality  was  70  per  cent. — A 
fairly  high  rate,  which  possibly  would  have  been  less, 
and  probably  would  not  have  been  more,  had  the  alco- 
holics not  reformed. 

And  the  evidence  grows  stronger  from  the  follow- 
ing: "In  the  experience  of  forty-three  companies 


174      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

among  those  who  had  taken  a  cure  for  alcoholism,  but 
[who  had]  remained  total  abstainers  up  to  the  time 
of  acceptance,  the  mortality  was  35  per  cent,  above  the 
normal.  Those  who  had  been  heavy  drinkers,  but 
who  had  reformed  without  taking  a  cure  [probably 
many  did  not  wholly  reform]  showed  an  extra  mor- 
tality of  [only]  32  per  cent.,  doubtless  because  of 
stronger  will-power  and  sturdier  nervous  constitu- 
tion."1 

According  to  the  Northwestern  Mutual's  experience, 
"temperate  beer-  and  wine-drinkers  showed  a  mor- 
tality of  only  about  3  per  cent,  in  excess  of  abstainers, 
while  whiskey-drinkers  and  heavy  beer-drinkers 
showed  a  death  rate  25  per  cent,  higher  than  the 
abstainers. 

The  foregoing  bears  out  only  what  is  popularly 
known :  That  excess  in  drinking,  especially  in  spirit- 
drinking,  is  more  harmful  than  moderation.  And  we 
could  argue  that  the  very  slightly  higher  mortality 
rate  of  3  per  cent,  among  the  temperate  beer-  and 
wine-drinkers  could  be  accounted  for  by  their  having 
possessed  slightly  weaker  will  power  and  less  sturdy 
nervous  constitution,  than  had  been  possessed  by  those 
who  had  shown  superior  moral  strength  by  abstaining 
altogether. 

In  order  to  determine  more  clearly  how  far  the  gen- 
eral mortality  in  different  countries  appears  to  stand 
in  direct  relation  to  the  consumption  of  alcohol,  Dr. 
Ulrik  Quensel,  Professor  of  Pathology  at  the  Univer- 

i  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1916,  Alcohol  and  Life  In- 
surance, by  Eugene  Lyman  Fisk. 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     175 

sity  of  Upsala,  prepared  a  table  in  which  he  showed 
that,  while  tne  mortality  of  the  men  in  Finland  was 
23.31  per  thousand,  their  average  annual  consumption 
of  alcohol  in  liters,  during  the  years  1891-1900,  was 
only  2.04  per  caput — a  high  death  rate  with  a  very 
low  consumption  of  alcohol.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
found  that  in  France  the  mortality  rate  was  21.86  per 
thousand  (lower  than  in  Finland),  while  their  annual 
consumption  of  alcohol,  per  caput,  was  20.80 ;  in  Bel- 
gium the  figures  were  22.03,  mortality  rate,  and  14.00, 
consumption  of  alcohol;  in  Italy  they  were  23.35, 
mortality  rate,  and  15.20,  consumption  of  alcohol. 
Dr.  Quensel  gave  other  figures,  which  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  me  to  give,  as  none  showed  the  slightest  con- 
nection between  the  quantity  of  drink  and  the  inci- 
dence of  mortality. 

Commenting  upon  the  result  of  his  investigations, 
Dr.  Quensel  remarks:  "The  table  indicates  in  gen- 
eral that  there  is  no  parallelism  between  the  mor- 
tality statistics  and  the  consumption  of  spirits.  There 
are  evidently  other  factors  which  determine  mortality 
as  a  whole  for  the  country,  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  the  influence  of  infant  mortality,  of  infec- 
tious disease,  and  the  general  condition  of  hygiene/' 

Once  again  we  must  utilize  statistics,  but  this  time  to 
sustain  our  contention  that  the  alcohol  evil  is  not 
nearly  so  widespread  or  so  serious  as  its  exaggerators 
would  have  us  believe.  And  once  more  we  quote  from 
Mr.  Fisk's  paper. 

' 'At  my  [Mr.  Fisk's]  request,  two  companies  fol- 
lowed back  for  a  number  of  months  their  recent  ap- 


176     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

plications,  which  were  in  such  form  that  the  total 
abstainers  could  be  distinguished  from  the  users  of 
alcohol.  In  the  Postal  Life  64  per  cent,  were  ab- 
stainers; in  the  Germania  Life  55.8  per  cent,  were 
abstainers.  The  rejection  rate,  excluding  those  who 
were  rejected  on  account  of  intemperance,  was  about 
the  same  in  the  two  classes  of  applicants,  suggesting 
that  total  abstainers  are  in  fact  only  average  people, 
not  a  small  group  of  'health  cranks/ 

"In  the  New  England  Mutual  an  analysis  of  180,000 
cases  insured  during  the  past  sixty  years  shows  24 
per  cent,  abstainers  and  11  per  cent,  rarely  using  alco- 
hol, or  about  35  per  cent,  practically  abstaining  from 
alcohol.  .  .  . 

"The  experiments  of  the  Life  Extension  Institute, 
among  the  individuals  it  has  examined,  is  along  similar 
lines.  These  examinations  were  for  hygienic  or  life- 
lengthening  purposes,  and  included  large  groups  of 
supposedly  healthy  average  people  whose  employers 
had  subscribed  for  this  service.  Among  industrial 
workers  45  per  cent,  were  abstainers.  Among  com- 
mercial workers  (low  average  age)  72  per  cent,  were 
abstainers. ' ' 

Now,  obviously,  if  such  a  goodly  percentage  of  per- 
sons in  all  positions  of  life  abstain  entirely  from  alco- 
hol, there  must  be  also  a  large  percentage  who  use 
alcohol  moderately;  so  that,  there  can  be  left  out  of 
a  total  population  only  a  small  percentage  who  use 
alcohol  to  excess. 

Why,  then,  is  there  need  of  National  Prohibition  ? — 
To  safeguard  a  few  hopeless  inebriates,  unquestion- 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     177 

ably  defective,  thereby  enormously  inconveniencing  as 
well  as  injuring  the  health  and  happiness  of  prac- 
tically the  entire  normal  population  ? 

And,  finally,  would  it  be  worth  while ;  or,  to  put  it 
less  selfishly,  would  it  be  possible,  by  the  most  drastic 
legislation  actually  to  save  our  few  habitual  drunk- 
ards? According  to  the  evidence  furnished  by  Dr. 
William  A.  White,  in  a  paper  published  in  the  Inter- 
state Medical  Journal)  it  would  not. 

In  his  paper  Dr.  White  cites  the  statistical  paper 
of  Haycraft,  in  which  that  author  summarized  his  ob- 
servations of  the  effects  of  prohibition  in  several  of 
our  prohibition  states,  where  prohibition  had  been  in 
operation  for  a  considerable  number  of  years. 

"Haycraft's  conclusion/'  says  Dr.  White,  "was  no 
less  striking  than  unexpected  at  that  time.  It  was  to 
the  effect  that  the  statistics  clearly  indicated  in  those 
states  that,  as  the  consumption  of  alcohol  had  been 
diminished  and  as  drunkenness  had  been  lessened, 
the  admission  to  the  insane  asylums  and  poor-houses 
had  progressively  and  correspondingly  increased. 
[Italics  mine.] 

"If  we  do  not  instantly  discard  such  a  conclusion 
as  this ;  and  will  stop  for  a  moment  to  give  it  careful 
consideration,  we  must  be  struck  by  the  probability 
of  its  truth,  and  by  its  important  social  significance. 

"Such  a  conclusion  can  only  mean  that  the  alco- 
holic as  such  is  a  mental  defective  in  some  way,  and 
that  if  his  mental  deficiency  does  not  show  as  indul- 
gence in  alcohol,  it  will  later  show  as  frank  mental 
disease,  or  as  that  type  of  deficiency  which  leads  to 


178      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

pauperism.  When  we  understand  better  the  funda- 
mental conditions  which  underlie  the  symptom,  al- 
coholism, we  may  be  able  to  do  something  more  defi- 
nitely constructive  about  it. ' ' 1 

A  curious  side  of  Dr.  Fisk's  paper,  excerpts  of 
which  we  have  used,  giving  him  due  credit,  is  that  it 
was  written  against  alcohol  and  seems  to  favor  Na- 
tional Prohibition.  It  occasionally  happens,  however, 
that  we  are  hurt  by  our  own  petards. 

Of  course,  Life  Insurance  statistics,  like  other  sta- 
tistics, should  be  taken  cum  grano  salis  in  their  classi- 
fications. Many  so-called  moderate  users  of  alcohol 
might  be  really  immoderate  users ;  for,  even  though  the 
companies  should  carefully  investigate  statements  in 
this  regard,  it  would  be  uncommonly  difficult  to  learn 
whether  certain  applicants  actually  and  at  all  times 
were  strictly  moderate.  So  many  factors,  other  than 
alcohol,  influence  the  life  and  health  of  the  individual, 
that  to  ascribe  the  sporadic  higher  mortality  of  cer- 
tain drinkers  to  a  single  substance,  alcohol,  is  hardly 
fair.  Besides,  among  the  insured  non-abstainers  are 
always  a  certain  proportion  of  those  who  indulge  im- 
moderately, and  these  would  necessarily  lower  con- 
siderably the  average  length  of  life  in  that  section. 

One  not  wholly  insignificant  factor  having  to  do 
with  the  slightly  longer  life  of  abstainers,  assuming 
that  a  fact,  is  that  often  they  are  unusually  economi- 
cal, and  hence  are  free  from  the  worry  to  which  the 
immoderate  drinker  is  especially  subject  owing  to  his 

i  New  York  Medical  Journal,  January  20th,  1917. 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     179 

improvidence  and  consequent  inability  to  provide 
properly  for  his  family. 

Another  point,  Life  Insurance  tables  appear  to  show 
that  between  the  fat  and  the  thin,  the  latter  are  the 
better  risks.  Now,  alcohol,  lessening  as  it  does  tissue 
waste,  and  being  therefore  a  sort  of  substitute  for 
food,  particularly  when  the  alcoholic  drink  is  beer, 
tends  to  put  on  flesh.  And,  further,  alcohol  in  mod- 
eration, because  it  stimulates  and  facilitates  digestion 
augments  the  desire  for  food.  Hence,  those  who  use 
alcohol,  may,  though  not  necessarily,  eat  too  much  and 
become  too  fat.  Then,  when  fat,  a  man  is  not  so  in- 
clined to  exercise ;  and  a  lack  of  exercise  is,  as  I  shall 
show  later,  a  primary  if  not  the  primary  cause  of 
heart  disease,  arteriosclerosis,  and  other  diseases. 

Nevertheless,  I  would  not  blame  alcohol  for  making 
men  fat,  that  effect  proving  only  its  wholesomeness, 
but  I  would  blame  the  fat  for  not  controlling  their 
gluttony,  and  for  being  too  indolent  even  to  try  to 
exercise. 

Regarding  the  greater  mortality  of  the  fat,  its  verce 
causce  are  obviously,  not  alcohol,  but  often  gluttony 
and,  to  put  it  plainly,  sheer  laziness. 

The  assumption  that  the  health  of  those  who  drink 
beer  exclusively  and  immoderately,  is  affected  solely 
by  the  three  or  four  per  cent,  of  alcohol  contained  in 
the  beer,  seems  to  me  arbitrary.  There  are  in  beer — 
besides  alcohol — malt,  hops,  and,  in  impure  beer, 
resin;  also,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  water  in  beer. 
Hence,  if  obesity,  with  its  train  of  ills,  results  from 


180      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

excessive  beer  drinking,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose 
the  exaggerated  adiposity  to  be  due,  less  to  the  trifling 
quantity  of  alcohol,  than  to  the  nutrients  and  water 
ingested  with  the  beer,  to  say  nothing  of  the  increased 
consumption  of  unneeded  food  resulting  from  the 
stimulated  appetite? 

We  come  now  to  how  alcohol  may  be  used  to  pro- 
mote health  and  longevity. 

Every  one  knows  that  the  full-blooded  and  well- 
nourished  are  subject  to  diseases  to  which  the  anaemic, 
ill-nourished  and  frail  are  not  so  subject.  The  so- 
called  plethoric  type  may  suffer,  or  die  prematurely, 
from  gout,  rheumatism,  arteriosclerosis,  angina  pec- 
toris,  apoplexy,  various  forms  of  nephritis  (inflamma- 
tion of  the  kidneys),  and  of  heart  disease;  or  they 
may  succumb  more  or  less  early  to  diabetes,  acute  in- 
digestion, intestinal  derangements,  or  pneumonia. — 
A  truly  formidable  list!  On  the  other  hand,  thin, 
anaemic  subjects  are  especially  prone  to  constipation, 
chronic  dyspepsia,  pernicious  anaemia,  ulcers  and  can- 
cer of  the  stomach,  fevers,  pulmonary  tuberculosis 
(consumption),  and  chronic  nephritis,  caused  often 
by  a  systemic  deficiency  of  water. 

While  the  above  attempted  classifications  of  the 
various  diseases  to  which  the  stout  and  the  thin  are 
respectively  subject,  are  rough,  they  are  approx- 
imately accurate. 

Now  as  facts  are  practically  useless,  unless  applied, 
how  may  we  utilize  the  knowledge  embraced  in  our 
classifications  for  the  furtherance  of  life  and  health? 

I  contend  that,  when  properly  used,  alcohol  will 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     181 

promote  health  and  prolong  life ;  but  all  types  of  men 
should  not  use  alcohol  in  the  same  way,  in  the  same 
quantity,  and  at  the  same  times. 

The  plethoric  (full  blooded)  should  be  sparing  in 
their  use  of  alcohol,  should  avoid  overeating,  and 
should  take  more  vigorous  exercise;  obviously,  so  as 
not  to  increase  their  plethora,  and  hence  their  sus- 
ceptibility to  the  diseases  to  which  they  are  already 
liable. 

Contrariwise,  the  thin  should  drink  alcohol  freely, 
though,  of  course  not  excessively;  thereby  increasing 
their  appetite,  and,  as  a  consequence,  their  intake  of 
food.  Were  such  a  regimen  pursued  by  the  too  thin, 
while  it  would  not  make  them  over  fat,  it  would  take 
them  out  of  the  class  of  dyspeptics  and  consump- 
tives, and  would  thus  tend  to  benefit  their  health  and 
to  prolong  their  lives. 

Used  in  the  ways  indicated,  alcohol  would  be  an 
agent  for  good ;  for  all  will  agree,  including  the  Life 
Insurance  Companies,  that  both  the  super-fat  and  the 
super-thin — extreme  types — have  a  poorer  expectation 
of  life  than  have  those  of  medium  physique  who,  nat- 
urally, are  not  especially  subject  either  to  the  diseases 
peculiar  to  the  over  fat,  or  to  those  other  quite  as 
dreadful  diseases  peculiar  to  the  too  thin. 

In  other  words,  neither  the  underweights  nor  the 
overweights  are,  in  the  language  of  the  Insurance 
Companies,  nearly  so  good  risks  as  are  the  proper 
weights ;  therefore,  for  longer  life,  it  behooves  the  too 
fat  to  reduce,  and  the  too  thin  to  put  on  flesh.  If  al- 
cohol, therefore,  favors  the  formation  of  flesh — and 


182      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

that  quality  is  conceded  to  alcohol  even  by  the  Pro- 
hibitionists— it  should  be  good  at  least  for  those  de- 
scribed as  "painfully"  thin. 

That  the  foregoing,  which  is  important,  may  be 
perfectly  clear,  I  sum  up  as  follows:  The  obese  and 
full-blooded  are  subject  to  certain  diseases;  the  thin 
and  anaemic  are  subject  to  certain  other  diseases; 
while  those  neither  too  fat  nor  too  thin  are  especially 
subject  to  no  diseases.  Therefore,  the  medium  or 
"just  right "  condition,  from  the  view-point  of  health 
and  longevity,  is  the  most  desirable. 

Now,  as  alcohol,  owing  to  its  stimulating  effect  upon 
the  appetite  and  the  gastric  secretions,  is  a  valuable 
food  adjuvant,  and,  as  such,  undoubtedly  favors  flesh 
formation,  it  follows  that,  to  attain  longer  life,  the 
obese  should  curtail  both  their  alcohol  and  their  food, 
and  increase  their  amount  of  exercise;  whereas  the 
thin  and  anaemic,  would  they  prolong  their  lives  by 
escaping  the  many  diseases  to  which  their  constitu- 
tional poverty  renders  them  liable,  should  increase 
their  consumption  of  alcohol,  thereby  improving  their 
appetite,  and  increasing  their  intake  of  water  and  of 
nourishing  food. 

From  the  above,  we  reason  that,  should  National 
Prohibition  be  enacted,  the  ill-nourished  and  anaemic 
would  be  its  chief  victims ;  they  being  doomed  to  per- 
petual tenuity,  unless  some  substance  to  replace  alco- 
hol could  be  found,  and  that  is  doubtful. 

Abstainers  are  generally  poor  water  drinkers,  but 
they  drink  coffee  and  tea ;  beverages  which,  as  we  have 
shown,  congest  the  internal  organs,  and  constant  con- 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND .  LONGEVITY     183 

gestion  may  cause  first  functional,  and  finally  organic, 
disease.  (Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body,  p.  148.) 

There  are,  of  course,  two  sides  to  all  questions. 
Let  us,  therefore,  take  up  a  neglected  side  of  another 
question — the  alleged  wholesomeness  of  candy  and 
"soft"  drinks.  We  are  told  that  candy  and  syrup 
sodas  are  harmless,  because  they  make  nobody  drunk. 
Yet  the  harmlessness,  either  of  a  beverage  or  of  an 
article  of  food,  is  not  proved  by  the  absence  of  only 
one  effect  that  another  beverage  has  when  used  to 
excess. 

"Soft"  drinks  are  not,  in  my  opinion,  always 
health-giving.  Indeed,  if  gastric  sensations  indicate 
anything,  lemonade,  sarsaparilla,  ginger  ale,  and  soda 
water  slopped  with  syrup,  are  more  acutely  poisonous 
than  are  alcoholic  drinks. 

Let  a  man  drink  ten  glasses  of  the  deadly  sweet 
syrups,  flavored  with  soda  water — usually  dispensed 
in  drug  stores  which  make  prescriptions  a  specialty — 
and  the  druggist  would  hurriedly  have  to  exercise 
his  "specialty." — If  he  should  bring  the  patient 
"round,"  he  would  do  well. 

Yet  what  healthy  man  could  not  drink  ten  beers, 
and  be  none  the  worst  for  it? 

Viewed  symptomatically,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to 
which  would  be  the  more  active  poison,  the  "sickish" 
sweet  soda  water,  or  the  light,  wholesome  beer. 

I  well  remember  attending  a  dance  one  hot  summer 
night  at  an  Armory.  Of  course,  no  intoxicating  bev- 
erages were  furnished,  but  there  was  plenty  of  lemon- 
ade. It  was  hot ;  I  danced,  perspired,  and,  afterward, 


184     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

I  drank  a  considerable  quantity  of  lemonade.  Later, 
I  suffered  from  the  worst  colic  of  which  I  have  recol- 
lection. 

Granted  that  sweets  do  not  intoxicate;  neverthe- 
less, they  are  injurious  to  many  persons.  In  the  first 
place  many  tons  of  the  candies  and  soft  drinks  daily 
consumed  are  dangerously  adulterated;  and,  even 
when  pure,  the  great  amount  of  sugar  they  contain  is 
deleterious  in  excess — much  more  so  than  an  equal 
quantity  of  light  beer. 

How  many  young  women  and  men  have  ruined 
their  stomachs  and  other  portions  of  their  digestive 
apparatus  by  eating  habitually  excessive  quantities  of 
candy!  And  very  many  persons  can  not  eat  even  a 
moderate  amount  of  sweets  without  suffering  acute 
gastric  distress. 

Indeed,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  argue,  and,  were 
statistics  available,  it  could  probably  be  proved  that 
candy  and  sickening-sweet  concoctions,  significantly 
called  "soft"  drinks,  have  done  infinitely  more  harm 
and  are  responsible  for  more  ruined  digestions  and 
permanently  spoiled  appetites  than  is  even  the  demon 
rum. 

It  is  unfortunate,  because  inevitable,  that  the 
blacker  side  of  most  questions  is  given  undue  promi- 
nence. It  is  in  that  way  that  prejudice  displaces  jus- 
tice, and  we  get  distorted  views  of  nearly  everything. 

The  number  of  persons  whom  light  table  beers  and 
wines  have  helped  is  legion.  We  never  hear  of  those ; 
but  one  can  not  visit  even  a  moving  picture  show  any- 
where without  seeing  in  a  majority  of  the  pictures 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     185 

displayed  all  the  repulsive  evils  of  excessive  drink- 
ing. I  remember  one  particularly  in  which  a  bloated 
hard-faced  saloon  keeper  lay  in  wait  for  customers 
outside  his  door,  literally  dragged  them  into  his  dram 
shop,  and  there  plied  them  with  liquor  until  they 
became  stupefied. 

Of  course,  such  constant  and  exaggerated  reiter- 
ation of  an  occasional  evil  creates  an  entirely  wrong 
impression  of  the  commonness  of  the  evil. 

Not  so  often  are  stories  told  like  the  following : 

In  an  editorial,  Resisting  Power  of  Old  Men,  the 
New  York  Medical  Journal  for  December  2,  1916, 
says:  "A  man,  aged  eighty-five  years,  who  was  in 
the  habit  of  taking  frequent  nips  of  any  drink  in 
which  his  friends  would  join  him,  was  taken  ill  with 
pneumonia.  Dr.  Russell,  of  Birmingham,  saw  him 
with  me  [Dr.  William  P.  Box]  in  consultation  on  the 
fifth  day  of  the  attack,  and  we  agreed  that  he  had 
no  chance  of  surviving,  but  the  crisis  came  on  the 
twelfth  day.  He  made  an  uninterrupted  recovery, 
and  lived  for  two  years  afterward.  The  patient  had 
a  loud  systolic  bruit  [murmur]  at  the  apex  of  the 
heart  ever  since  I  had  known  him,  which  was  about 
eight  years." 

Dr.  William  F.  Box,  a  practitioner  of  Stratford- 
on-Avon,  who  communicated  the  foregoing  case  orig- 
inally to  the  British  Medical  Journal,  told  also  of 
another  patient. 

This  was  a  man,  over  ninety-three  years  old,  who 
had  been  operated  on,  at  the  age  of  seventy-nine  years, 
for  a  strangulated  inguinal  hernia  [rupture].  He 


186      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

recovered,  although  he  also  had  a  loud  systolic  bruit 
at  the  apex  of  his  heart. 

But  the  most  interesting  point  in  the  above  cases 
is  the  further  statement  of  the  physician  that  in  both 
those  very  old  men  "the  arteries  were  elastic,  and 
there  were  no  signs  of  high  tension." 

Unfortunately,  the  editorial  does  not  state  whether 
the  second  man,  aged  ninety-three  years,  was  in  the 
habit  of  taking  frequent  "nips"  or  not.  But  cer- 
tainly the  first  one  was,  and  that,  without  injury  to 
his  arteries,  and  without  raising  his  blood-tension 
to  the  danger  point. 

Now,  if  alcohol  were  the  "virulent  poison,"  which 
the  myriad  anti-alcohol  books  declare  it  is,  how  could 
it  be  that  a  man  "in  the  habit  of  taking  frequent 
nips" — a  confirmed  tipler — should,  when  eighty-five 
years  old  and  having  a  damaged  heart,  survive  pneu- 
monia, afterward  living  to  the  great  age  of  eighty- 
seven  years? 

The  organs  of  all  human  beings  are  only  human; 
that  is  to  say,  that,  while  there  may  be  superficial 
differences  in  powers  of  resistance,  human  organs  be- 
ing of  like  physiological  and  histological  structure,  if 
alcohol  in  large  doses  should  poison  the  organs  of 
some,  it  would  poison  the  homologous  (like)  organs 
of  all.  In  short,  as  a  poison,  the  effects  of  alcohol,  in 
a  given  quantity,  would  be  universal  and  inevitable, 
exactly  as  would  be  the  effects  of  such  poisons  as 
arsenic,  paris  green,  strychnine,  carbolic  and  prussic 
acid,  morphine,  chloroform,  etc.; — all  which  kill  in 
excessive  doses. 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     187 

Moreover,  Prohibitionists  aver  specifically  that 
"  alcohol  is  absolutely  destructive  to  the  vascular  sys- 
tem." If  that  is  so,  why  did  not  alcohol  absolutely 
destroy  the  vascular  system  of  the  man,  who,  in  spite 
of  having  been  ' '  in  the  habit  of  taking  frequent  nips, ' ' 
died  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-seven  years? 

Instead,  alcohol,  though  used  in  this  old  man's  case 
habitually  to  excess,  had  no  deleterious  effect  upon  his 
vascular  system,  but  left  "his  arteries  elastic,  with 
no  signs  of  high  tension/' — Convincing  proof  that  al- 
cohol is  not  a  poison,  or  else  that  the  man  who  drank 
it  habitually  to  excess  was  not  human. 

My  readers  will  understand  that  I  am  not  trying 
indiscriminately  to  "knock"  all  Prohibitionists,  many 
of  whom  are  honest ;  I  wish  simply  to  tell,  as  fully  as 
my  limited  powers  permit,  the  truth,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth,  about  alcohol. 

To  give  a  common  instance  of  how  an  effect  is 
ascribed  to  a  cause  which  really  has  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  effect,  I  may  mention  that  whenever  a 
man  noted  in  any  particular  field — art,  science,  or 
finance — dies  suddenly  from  heart  disease,  "over- 
work" is  invariably  given  as  the  vera  causa  of  the 
premature  death. 

Of  course,  in  such  cases,  overwork  does  not  mean 
physical  overwork;  it  means  unremitting  application 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  intellectual  specialty.  And  yet, 
by  no  possibility,  could  too  constant  application  of 
the  brain  to  anything  cause  heart  disease.  It  is  quite 
true  that  continued  mental  strain  could  be  an  indirect 
cause,  by  occupying  sedentarily  all  one's  time,  part 


188      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

of  which  should  be  spent  in  some  physical  exertion. 

The  true  cause  of  heart  disease,  when  not  inherited 
or  due  to  infection,  is  underwork — that  is,  physical 
underwork. 

Heart  disease  may  follow  syphilis,  rheumatic  fever, 
arthritis,  tonsillitis  (?),  arteriosclerosis,  infectious 
fevers,  or  overstrain;  it  may  accompany  lipoid  (fatty) 
degeneration  of  the  cor  muscularis  induced  by  bodily 
inactivity;  or,  it  may  be  inherited;  but  heart  disease 
is  never  caused  simply  by  excessive  brain-work. 

Hugo  Muensterberg,  the  noted  German  philosopher, 
died  recently  in  a  class-room  in  Cambridge,  while  de- 
livering a  lecture.  He  was  only  fifty-three  years  old. 
The  cause  of  his  sudden  demise  was  given  as  "  heart 
disease  brought  on  by  overwork." 

But  had  Professor  Muensterberg  been  in  the  habit 
of  taking  regular  vigorous  exercise,  he  would  prob- 
ably not  have  died  at  so  early  an  age.  The  fiat  that 
his  "  death  was  due  to  heart  disease  brought  on  by 
overwork"  is  illustrative  of  the  loose  way  we  have  of 
explaining  all  untimely  and  unfortunate  occurrences. 

In  much  the  same  way,  certain  physicians  and  scien- 
tists, who  really  should  know  better,  ascribe  all  varie- 
ties of  diseases,  incapacities  and  deficiencies  to  even 
the  moderate  use  of  alcohol ;  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
alcohol,  moderately  indulged  in,  could  not  produce  a 
tithe  of  the  effects  shouldered  upon  it. 

To  conclude  this  chapter  I  quote  the  following  from 
Dr.  J.  Starke  (Alcohol— The  Sanction  for  Its  Use) : 
"The  mode  of  living  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  [in 
Germany] ,  among  a  great  number  of  people,  has  been 


LIFE  INSURANCE  AND  LONGEVITY     189 

twice  examined ;  once,  for  example,  that  of  the  oldest 
people  among  400,000  inhabitants  of  large  cities. 
Both  times  there  were  found  among  the  oldest  men, 
not  only  sensible  alcoholists  [moderate  drinkers],  but 
men  who  were  accustomed  to  heavy  drinking,  and  men 
who  had  all  their  lives  committed  alcoholic  excesses. 
And  this,  notwithstanding  the  fact,  that  the  examina- 
tions were  carried  out  among  the  inhabitants  of  differ- 
ent parts  of  Germany,  that  the  examinations  lay 
many  years  apart,  and  that  both  examiners  inde- 
pendently of  each  other,  were  really  convinced  that 
something  detrimental  to  alcohol  would  be  found. 

"He  who  expects  to  live  especially  long,  because  he 
abstains  from  alcohol,  may  experience  a  bitter  disap- 
pointment." 


CHAPTER  XXV 

ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY 

I  MAINTAIN  that  chronic  alcoholism  is  proof  of 
deficiency.  The  stuff  of  which  normal  men  are  made 
is,  in  the  chronic  alcoholic,  lacking.  Habitual  drunk- 
ards were  never  normal.  Always  they  have  been 
weak,  selfish,  conceited,  and  indifferent  to  others'  and 
to  their  own  welfare ;  also  they  have  been  deficient  in 
average  power  to  react  against  the  common  vicissi- 
tudes of  life.  To  warn  a  confirmed  inebriate  not  to 
drink,  is  like  telling  a  coward  to  risk  his  life  for  an- 
other. Both  know  their  duty,  but  it  is  not  in  them 
to  do  it. 

Prohibitionists  contend  that  drunkards  are  likely 
to  have  deficient  children.  They  are.  The  question 
is,  however,  is  such  transmission  due  to  the  alcoholic 
excesses  of  the  parents,  or  to  the  parental  deficiency 
clearly  shown  by  the  habitual  drunkenness?  Surely, 
it  would  be  strange  if  ruined  stock  should  produce 
anything  perfect;  although  it  might  beget  a  good 
throw-back. 

Who  will  deny  that  chronic  inebriety  is  a  sign  of 
deficiency?  And  if  that  is  so,  defective  parents  are, 
of  course,  more  likely  to  have  defective  children  than 
are  normal  parents.  Yet  alcohol  is  blamed. 

190 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY  191 

The  argument  that,  because  some  of  the  children 
born  to  parents  who  drink  alcohol,  are  defective,  alco- 
hol caused  the  defectiveness,  reminds  me  of  the  old 
lady  Christian  Scientist  who  had  a  cat.  Kittens  were 
born  to  the  cat,  and  the  good  old  lady,  noticing  that 
they  were  blind,  prayed  assiduously  that  their  eye- 
sight would  be  made  perfect.  And,  behold,  after  ten 
days,  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they  saw !  Where- 
upon the  old  lady  exclaimed  triumphantly,  ' '  Christian 
Science  did  it!" 

Said  Dr.  Percy  Smith  in  his  Presidential  Address 
before  the  Section  of  Psychology  of  the  British  Medi- 
cal Association : 

''No  doubt  in  many  cases  the  alcoholic  is  a  person 
who  starts  life  with  an  unstable  nervous  system;  he 
has  either  alcoholic,  or  insane,  or  neurotic  inheritance, 
and,  to  a  certain  extent,  he  is  defective  ab  initio  [from 
the  beginning]  in  self-control,  and  goes  without 
much  resistance  into  the  paths  of  chronic  alco- 
holism." 

In  the  evidence  given  by  Dr.  Robert  Jones,  Medical 
Superintendent  of  the  Claybury  Asylum,  before  the 
Inter-Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deteriora- 
tion, he  deposed: 

"In  regard  to  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  de- 
scendants, anything  which  devitalizes  the  parent  un- 
favorably affects  the  offspring,  and  clinical  experi- 
ence supports  this  in  the  lowered  height  and  impaired 
general  physique  of  the  issue  of  intemperate  parents. 
It  also  records  the  fact  that  no  less  than  42  per  cent, 
of  all  periodic  inebriates  relate  a  history  of  either 


192      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

drink,  insanity,  or  epilepsy  in  their  ancestors." — In 
other  words,  their  progenitors  were  in  some  way  de- 
fective. 

During  our  constant  struggle  for  existence,  Nature 
is  continually  weeding  the  sub-normal — the  unfit,  by 
causing  them  to  destroy  themselves.  Insane,  epilep- 
tic, and  alcoholic  stocks  gradually  die  out. 

Normal  persons  do  not  drink  habitually  to  excess, 
any  more  than  they  eat  to  excess.  The  normal  man 
is  temperate  in  all  things ;  hence,  an  inordinate  appe- 
tite for  strong  drink  argues  abnormality  and  defec- 
tiveness. 

It  is  almost  universally  believed,  even  by  those  who 
approve  of  the  temperate  use  of  alcohol,  that  the  ha- 
bitual use  of  this  substance  may  create  a  craving  for 
its  repeated  use.  I  do  not  believe  that  is  true,  ex- 
cepting in  the  case  of  defectives;  and  defectiveness 
would  manifest  itself  eventually  in  some  way,  if  not 
by  use  of  alcohol. 

I  would  repeat  here  that  common  experience  has 
shown  that,  when  young  adults  are  allowed  bever- 
ages of  light  alcoholic  content  at  the  family  table, 
they  are  less  likely  to  become  immoderate  drinkers  in 
mature  age,  than  are  those  to  whom  alcohol  in  any 
form  has  been  religiously  forbidden. 

I,  myself,  have  used  alcohol  moderately  but  regu- 
larly for  the  past  twenty-eight  years;  and,  from  my 
own  experience  I  can  state  positively  that  the  older 
I  become  the  less  alcohol  I  consume.  Twenty  years 
ago  I  used  to  drink  whiskey  occasionally,  but  I  grew 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY  193 

not  to  like  it.  Now  I  drink  ale  exclusively,  and  not 
much  of  that.  Sometimes  a  glass  at  luncheon ;  usually 
a  glass  or  two  at  dinner,  and,  if  I  have  been  up  late 
and  intensely  occupied  mentally,  I  drink  a  glass  just 
before  retiring,  and  most  refreshing  and  satisfying  I 
find  it. 

The  drinking  of  alcohol  produces  three  conditions, 
depending  upon  the  amount  consumed.  A  moderate 
amount  results  in  stimulation;  when  more  is  taken, 
intoxication  may  follow;  while  an  excessive  quantity 
produces  stupefaction. 

In  the  stimulation  stage,  the  natural  disposition,  or 
idiosyncratic  ego,  is  intensified:  The  witty  become 
brilliant;  the  joyful,  exuberant;  the  agreeable,  affec- 
tionate ;  the  choleric,  ugly ;  and  the  melancholic  weep. 
If  more  alcohol  is  then  taken,  the  various  traits,  after 
undergoing  a  still  greater  but  temporary  intensifica- 
tion, moderate;  then  are  reduced  rapidly  until  the 
stage  of  stupefaction  is  reached,  which  may  fall  into 
narcosis  and  end  in  coma,  if  the  total  consumption 
has  been  beyond  reason. 

The  alcohol  habit  is  induced  in  those  who  drink  for 
stupefaction — not  for  stimulation.  Obviously,  for 
the  production  of  stupefaction  one  must  drink  some 
strong  spirituous  liquor,  and  a  great  deal  of  it;  and 
if  that  procedure  is  repeated  often,  the  organism  be- 
comes accustomed  to  the  powerful  stimulation,  learns 
to  depend  upon  it,  and  at  last  demands  it  as  the  price 
of  its  continued  functioning.  Nor  is  that  the  worst; 
for,  as  the  organism  grows  more  resistant  to  the  effects 


194      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

of  the  alcohol,  its  demands  increase  until  they  become 
almost  insatiable. 

Thus  the  confirmed  inebriate's  craving  for  alcohol 
becomes  so  massively  systemic  that  in  the  end  his 
power  to  resist,  always  weak,  but  finally  awakened  by 
his  late  realization  of  the  consequences  of  his  habit, 
collapses  utterly. 

That  habitual  intoxication  to  the  point  of  almost 
daily  narcotization  is  not  good  for  the  organism,  goes 
without  saying;  and  yet,  certain  "old  soaks"  live  to 
a  ripe  old  age. 

Occasional  intoxication,  however,  is  not  especially 
harmful,  as  the  brain  recovers  from  stupefaction, 
when  not  too  often  repeated,  completely.  The  reason 
is  that  stupefaction  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  an  un- 
natural condition  of  the  brain.  The  fatigue  products 
cause  more  or  less  stupefaction,  and  conduce  to  sleep, 
where  normal  stupefaction  is  complete.  "We  speak  of 
one  as  being  "stupefied"  with  sleep,  when  he  can 
hardly  keep  his  eyes  open. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  the  stupefaction  that  injures 
the  excessive  drinker,  so  much  as  it  is  the  ever  in- 
creasing amounts  of  alcohol,  fusel-oil,  etc.,  which  he 
finds  necessary  to  produce  it ;  for,  undoubtedly,  alco- 
hol, like  everything  else,  when  in  excessive  amounts, 
acts  destructively,  if  not  poisonously,  upon  the  human 
organism. 

The  Medical  and  Surgical  Eeport  of  Bellevue  and 
Allied  Hospitals,  New  York,  furnishes  the  following 
interesting  table  of  answers  given  by  inebriety  pa- 
tients to  the  question, ' l  Why  did  you  begin  to  drink  ? ' ' 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY  195 

Sociability  52.5  per  cent. 

Trouble  "  13.  "  " 

Medical  Use  9.3  "  " 

Occupation  7.  "  " 

Out  of  Work  5.  "  " 

Unknown  5.  "  " 

To  be  thought  Sporting      1.2  " 

Thus  more  than  half  of  the  inebriates  drank  be- 
cause they  liked  it — were  weak,  goodnatured,  and 
liked  to  be  "sociable."  Trouble  did  not  trouble 
many  so  much  that  they  took  to  drink — showing 
innate  indifference  in  most.  Being  "out  of  work" 
worried  seriously  only  five  per  cent. — indifference 
again.  And,  "to  be  thought  sporting"  hardly  fig- 
ured at  all  as  a  cause  (1.2  per  cent.),  as  practically 
only  one  inebriate  out  of  every  hundred  cared  a  rap 
what  anyone  thought  about  him — once  more  indiffer- 
ence. 

In  The  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe  (Ernest 
Gordon),  we  read  of  instances  in  France  and  Ger- 
many, where  employers  of  large  numbers  of  men  erect 
canteens  to  sell  beer,  wines  and  liquors.  They,  then, 
for  their  own  profit,  encourage  their  workmen  to 
drink,  and  succeed  in  making  many  drink  much  more 
than  is  good  for  them;  for,  those  who  do  not  drink 
freely  are  discharged,  upon  slight  pretexts,  and  so 
lose  their  only  means  of  a  livelihood. 

But  such  abuses  are  not  arguments  against  alcohol ; 
they  are  merely  damning  evidence  of  tyranny  which 
should  be  suppressed  by  all  means. 


196      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

In  the  same  book  are  described  drinking  bouts  of 
the  German  University  students.  They  are  disgust- 
ing. But  who  is  advocating  disgraceful  drunken 
orgies  ? 

It  is  comparatively  easy  to  enumerate  "horror 
stories "  of  the  evils  of  alcoholism.  Its  effects  are  ter- 
rible; and  alcoholism  should  be  fought,  just  as  gross 
immorality,  venereal  diseases,  and  evils  of  all  kinds 
should  be  fought.  But  to  cure  sporadic  inebriety  it 
seems  hardly  necessary  to  tell  the  whole  normal  world 
that  it  must  drink  no  alcoholic  beverage  whatsoever. 

The  Commission  of  Internal  Revenue  reports  that 
for  the  fiscal  year,  1916—1,182,193  barrels  of  beer 
less  were  consumed  than  for  1915. — Let  the  people 
alone,  and  they  will  learn  to  drink  less. 

Anti-Alcoholists  claim  that  alcohol  causes  defective 
lactation  and  ovulation,  and  leads  to  sterility.  On 
the  other  hand,  many  eminent  physicians  aver  that 
beer,  ale,  and  stout  increase  the  flow  of  milk,  and  do 
not  produce  sterility. 

Sir  Victor  Horsley  states  that  the  daughter  of  a 
drunkard  can  rarely  suckle  her  child.  That  might 
be;  for  the  daughter  of  a  drunkard — a  defective — 
would  be  likely  to  be  defective  in  more  ways  than  the 
one  of  not  being  able  to  suckle  her  own  infant.  Yet 
that  does  not  prove  that  moderate  drinking  vitiates 
the  power  of  suckling. 

Furthermore,  many  ladies  of  the  aristocracy,  who 
confine  their  drinking  habits  to  coffee  and  tea,  when 
they  find  themselves  unable  to  breast-feed  their  in- 
fants, are  glad  to  employ  the  wives  and  married 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY  197 

daughters  of  workmen,  who  drink  more  or  less,  as 
wet  nurses. 

The  German  Empire  has  grown,  in  thirty  years, 
from  about  forty,  to  sixty  millions  of  people;  show- 
ing that  nations  can  considerably  increase,  despite 
the  use  of  alcohol. 

The  statements  of  Prohibitionists  regarding  the  in- 
fluence of  alcohol  upon  fecundity  are  contradictory. 
For  instance,  Professor  Horsley  remarks:  "As 
[von]  Bunge  truly  observes,  we  speak  of  a  child's 
tissues  as  delicate  and  liable  to  injury  by  alcohol,  but 
how  much  more  delicate  is  the  ovum." — But  Dr.  Ed- 
win F.  Bowers,  another  * '  anti, ' '  says : x  "  The  germ 
cells  are  much  more  difficult  to  poison  or  to  affect  un- 
favorably than  are  any  other  cells  in  the  body." — 
Then,  again,  says  Dr.  G.  von  Bunge,  Professor  in  the 
University  of  Basil,  this  time  more  emphatically: 
"All  should  avoid  alcoholic  poison — the  children,  be- 
cause it  is  especially  injurious  to  the  youthful  organ- 
ism ;  grown  persons,  because  it  is  even  more  injurious 
to  the  germ  cells  [italics  mine]  ;  the  aged,  as  an  exam- 
ple to  others." 

Could  we  be  convinced  by  mere  words,  such  impas- 
sioned utterances  might  impress.  But,  while  we  pon- 
der, steps  forth  an  English  alienist,  Dr.  Branthwaite. 
This  gentleman,  however,  wishes  to  warn  against  the 
danger  of  allowing  chronic  alcoholics  to  propagate 
their  kind,  and,  being  methodical,  he  collates  amazing 
statistics  to  sharpen  his  "point." 

In   an   address   at   the    Stockholm    Congress,   Dr. 

i  Alcohol — Its  Influence  on  Mind  and  Body,  p.  80. 


198      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Branthwaite  stated  that,  ' '  out  of  646  women  admitted 
[to  some  hospital],  who  were  drunkards  of  the  most 
advanced  type,  386  were  either  married  at  the  time 
of  admission,  or  widows.  These  386  had  given  birth 
to  2,079  children,  an  average  of  5.3  per  head.  Fif- 
teen had  brought  ten  or  more  children  into  the  world, 
and  one  as  many  as  seventeen!" 

Pretty  fair  fecundity  for  "women  drunkards  of 
the  most  advanced  type,"  and  the  more  astounding 
in  that  we  had  been  told  that  alcohol  was  the  "poison" 
par  excellence  that  attacked  the  "springs  of  life." 
We  should  have  thought  that  such  a  "poison,"  as 
alcohol  has  been  "indisputably"  proved  to  be,  would 
have  had  an  immeasurably  more  deleterious  effect 
upon  the  feminine  germ  cells  [ova]. — Well,  we  never 
really  know,  do  we  ?  After  having  given  his  convinc- 
ing statistics  Dr.  Branthwaite  made  a  strong  plea  for 
the  necessity  of  surgically  crippling  the  procreative 
parts  of  all  chronic  alcoholists. 

Professor  Horsley  (Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body, 
p.  264)  speaks  of  the  frequency  of  the  "overlaying" 
of  infants  by  drunken  mothers.  He  says:  "The 
drowsiness  and  lethargy  of  the  alcohol-taking  mother 
is  recognized  as  a  frequent  cause  of  the  overlaying  of 
infants." 

Doubtless  Sir  Horsley  meant  to  say  "overlying"; 
but  that  is  unimportant — a  mere  lapsus  cerebri.  We 
are  inclined  to  believe,  however,  that,  in  many  cases, 
the  "drowsiness  and  lethargy"  of  those  poor  mothers 
have  been  "caused"  as  much  by  chronic  overwork,  as 
by  chronic  alcoholism. 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEFICIENCY  199 

A  cause,  which  we  have  not  yet  mentioned,  but 
which  has  undoubtedly  had  much  to  do  with  the  com- 
paratively high  mortality  rate  of  the  children  of  in- 
ebriates, apart  from  the  inheritance  of  any  parental 
deficiencies,  is  general  neglect. 

All  know  that  drunkards  are  selfish,  weak-willed, 
lazy,  and  lacking  in  self-control.  If  they  love  their 
wives  and  children,  they  love  drink  more ;  and,  when 
they  spend  most  of  their  wages  for  whiskey,  not  a 
great  deal  is  left  for  rent,  clothing,  fuel,  and  food. 
As  a  consequence,  their  homes  are  squalid,  filthy,  com- 
fortless, and  cold;  their  wives  are  dejected  and  hope- 
less; while  their  children,  besides  being  insufficiently 
nourished,  are  covered  only  with  dirt  and  rags. 
Moreover,  the  miserable  little  ones,  upon  whom  the 
sins  of  their  fathers  are  heavily  visited,  receive  none 
of  that  kindness  and  loving  care  usually  lavished  upon 
those  more  fortunately  born. 

A  pathetic  picture  that  makes  the  heart  ache ;  and, 
were  alcohol  the  cause,  I  would  shout  against  it  in 
clarion  tones.  But  is  alcohol  the  cause  of  such  mis- 
ery? I  believe  absolutely  that  it  is  not.  The  cause 
is  man. 

Myriad  temptations  beset  everybody ;  alcohol  is  but 
one.  Bank  clerks  see  and  handle  money  daily;  only 
the  thief  steals  it.  Certain  poor  men,  with  families 
to  support,  bet  on  race  horses; — a  reason  that  the 
"sport  of  kings"  should  be  stopped?  Some  men  flirt 
with  and  seduce  other  men's  wives; — should  we  there- 
fore suppress  women?  Burglars  prey  upon  the 
wealthy; — an  argument  against  the  acquisition  of 


200     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

property?  The  vice  of  gluttony  is  widespread; — so, 
we  should  condemn  delectable  foods  as  "tempta- 
tions"? There  are  drug  fiends,  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  them;  yet  drugs  are  needed  by  the  sick  and 
suffering,  and  no  government  would  forbid  their  use. 

Then,  because  that  benign  gift,  alcohol,  is  abused 
by  some  men,  should  all  men  spurn  that  gift  ? 

If  the  temptations  of  money,  sports,  women,  prop- 
erty, food,  drugs,  and  drink,  are  not  resisted  by  all 
men,  not  the  temptations,  but  the  men  who  make 
temptations  out  of  what  are  in  themselves  good,  should 
be  eliminated.  Upon  the  man  who  drinks  immoder- 
ately, and  upon  him  alone,  rests  the  curse  of  drunken- 
ness. 

Always,  when  man's  desires  have  been  powerful, 
has  he  acted  them  out,  despite  law.  Penalize  him, 
and  he  will  do  secretly  what  he  once  did  openly.  But 
change  his  desires,  and  no  law  will  be  necessary  to 
change  his  conduct. 

Yet,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  evils  of  excessive 
drinking  are  great.  Hence,  saloons,  as  to  their  num- 
ber, their  hours  for  remaining  open,  and  their  meth- 
ods of  conducting  business,  should  be  strictly  regu- 
lated. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

ALCOHOLi  AND  POVERTY 

Is  drink  the  cause  of  poverty?  Prohibitionists  say 
it  is ;  but  let  us  reason  a  little.  That  poverty  and  ex- 
cessive drinking  are  often  associated  is  conceded ;  yet 
that  far  from  proves  excessive  drinking  to  be  the 
cause  of  poverty.  It  is  the  usual  reasoning :  Post  hoc, 
ergo  propter  hoc.1 

Men  who  drink  to  excess  are  generally  lazy,  shift- 
less, irresponsible  and  selfish;  they  have  also  deficient 
brain  power.  Hence,  these  defects,  coupled  with  lack 
of  ambition  and  aversion  to  industry,  are  the  more 
logical  causes  of  their  poverty.  Succinctly,  tempera- 
ment, rather  than  intemperance,  seems  the  chief  cause. 

According  to  a  report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty, 
the  intemperance  of  parents  or  guardians  was  found 
to  be  the  cause  of  the  destitution  of  children  in  45  per 
cent,  of  the  cases  they  investigated.  But  here  also 
temperament  was  probably  the  magna  causa.  Par- 
ents, who  are  not  organically  defective,  care  for  their 
children,  and  do  not  drink  to  excess. 

Frequently,  the  pangs  of  hunger,  suffering  from 
cold,  and,  sometimes,  fear  of  poverty,  lead  to  the 
drink  habit. 

i  After  this ;  therefore,  because  of  this. 
201 


202      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

And  there  are  those  who  believe  that  poverty  is  not 
caused  by  intemperance.  Others  do  not  know,  but 
try  to  find  out.  Mr.  Charles  Booth  became  so  strongly 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  liquor  as  a  cause 
of  pauperism  that  he  made  a  thorough  investigation 
in  the  almshouses  and  Homes  of  England,  to  find  that 
drink  figured  but  slightly  as  a  cause,  but  that  a  large 
number  of  the  cases  was  due  to  old  age  and  sick- 
ness. 

So  overjoyed  was  Mr.  Booth  at  his  unlooked-for 
discovery  that  most  paupers  who  had  become  a  public 
charge  had  not  been  reduced  to  pauperism  through 
vicious  habits,  that  he  advocated  universal  old  age 
pensions  in  England. 

The  great  investigation  of  the  causes  of  pauperism, 
by  the  German  Imperial  Statistical  Bureau,  disclosed 
the  fact  that  in  only  2.1  per  cent.,  of  the  1,367,347 
cases  examined,  could  the  pauperism  be  attributed 
to  the  abuse  of  liquor;  while  Dr.  Bohmert's  study  of 
77  German  cities  resulted  in  the  still  lower  figure  of 
1.3  per  cent. 

The  report  of  the  Economic  Sub-Committee  to  the 
Committee  of  Fifty,  of  investigations  conducted  in 
New  York  and  Baltimore,  concluded  that  23  per  cent, 
and  21  per  cent.,  respectively,  of  the  cases  of  pauper- 
ism in  the  two  cities,  were  due  to  drink ;  those  higher 
figures  being  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that,  in  their 
investigations,  liquor  was  considered  as  an  indirect, 
as  well  as  a  direct  cause. 

The  pauper  statistics  from  Magdeberg,  for  1895, 
found  4  cases  of  "intemperance  the  cause,"  among 


ALCOHOL  AND  POVERTY  203 

2,260  permanent  paupers.  Among  the  poor  and  the 
paupers  of  Stuttgart,  Dr.  H.  Rettich  (1898)  found 
that  .09  per  cent,  of  the  2,164  males  had  become  de- 
pendent through  drink,  and,  among  1,505  females, 
not  even  one. 

Further  investigations  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty 
resulted  in  the  following  interesting  information: 
Of  6,450  cases  of  distress  seeking  relief  from  char- 
itable organizations  in  Baltimore,  Boston,  Buffalo, 
Cincinnati,  and  New  York,  in  the  year,  1891-92,  11.4 
was  the  average  percentage  of  the  poverty  that  had 
been  traced  to  drink.  Among  the  applicants  brought 
to  their  miserable  condition  by  alcohol  ( ? ) ,  were 
about  twice  as  many  white  males  as  there  were  ne- 
groes. White  males  applied  for  relief  about  twice  as 
often  as  did  females.  Married  women  were  found  to 
be  more  given  to  liquor  drinking  than  were  unmarried 
women ;  and  the  reverse  was  true  in  regard  to  married 
and  unmarried  men.  Immorality  among  single 
women  employed  as  domestics  was  found  to  be  com- 
mon. Prostitutes  sought  relief  from  charity,  because 
of  disease,  rather  than  because  of  intemperance. 
That  women  came  to  want  more  often  than  did  men, 
because  of  the  intemperance  of  others,  was  found, 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

In  respect  to  nativity,  it  was  found  that  very  few 
native  Americans  of  American  extraction  had  to  ap- 
ply for  charity,  on  account  of  their  dissolute  habits; 
most  of  the  applicants  having  been  foreigners. 
Among  the  latter,  the  Irish  ranked  high ;  the  Hebrews 
very  low ;  and  the  Italians  still  lower. 


204      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

"In  stating  causes  of  distress  among  7,500  cases 
dealt  with  by  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  Chi- 
cago, in  1893-95,  the  superintendent  of  this  organiza- 
tion does  not  mention  drunkenness  as  a  cause  in  a 
single  instance."1 

The  most  recent  study  of  the  relation  between  drink 
and  poverty  is  one  published  by  the  Alcohol  Com- 
mission of  Norway,  collated  by  the  Central  Statistical 
bureau  of  that  country.  The  inquiry  embraced  all 
persons  who  had  received  public  poor  relief  in  1910. 
In  the  cities,  drink  was  put  down  as  the*  chief  cause 
of  poverty  in  1.8  per  cent,  of  the  cases,  and  a  con- 
tributing cause  in  4.8  per  cent.  Habitual  drunken- 
ness, during  earlier  years,  was  found  to  have  been 
a  cause  in  only  2  per  cent.  Corresponding  numbers 
for  the  rural  districts  were  1.2,  0.8,  and  2.5  per  cent. 
— a  total  of  4.5  per  cent.  No  similar  study  of  any 
magnitude  has  been  made  lately  in  this  country,  so 
we  are  unable  to  say  how  closely  percentages  here 
would  correspond.  But  nowadays  charity  workers 
are  more  chary  of  ascribing  poverty  to  drink.  They 
recognize  that  often  ill-health,  indolence  and  crushing 
economic  conditions  hold  the  chief  place. 

i  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  p.  72,  by  John 
Keren. 


ALCOHOL  AND  CRIME  209 

and  Wales  was  15  per  cent,  higher;  but  the  crimes 
of  violence — namely,  common  assaults,  aggravated 
assaults,  assaults  on  constables,  felonious  and  malicious 
wounding — decreased  1 . 62  per  cent. ! "  ( Introduction 
to  Judicial  Statistics,  1901.) 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

ALCOHOL.  AND   DISEASE 

SPACE  and  the  reader's  time  are  too  valuable  to 
permit  enumeration  of  the  host  of  diseases  that  ad- 
vocates of  prohibition  claim  are  caused  by  alcohol. 

Arteriosclerosis  (hardening  of  the  arteries),  atro- 
phy, (wasting)  of  the  liver  and  kidneys,  nephritis, 
(inflammation  of  the  kidneys),  " fatty"  heart,  cirrho- 
sis of  the  liver,  arthritis  (inflammation  of  the  joints), 
and  gout, — are  just  a  few  of  the  ills  for  which  al- 
cohol is  made  primarily  responsible. 

In  respect  to  gout,  a  light  wine  would  do  less  harm 
than  meat ;  while  in  some  diseases  of  the  heart,  a  glass 
of  port  would  be  not  so  injurious  as  much  water. 
As  to  the  claim  that  the  moderate,  but  continued,  use 
of  alcohol  causes  arteriosclerosis,  atrophy  and  cirrho- 
sis of  the  liver,  nephritis,  et  al.,  it  is  well  to  consider 
that  proof  is  wanting  that  even  immoderate  drinking 
causes  any  one  of  those  diseases;  the  fact  being  that 
many  heavy  drinkers  have  lived  with  sound  organs 
to  a  great  age.  Again,  there  is  the  additional  fact 
that  abstainers  have  those  diseases  as  well  as  drinkers. 

In  order  to  prove  alcohol  the  vera  causa  of  any  dis- 
ease, it  would  be  necessary  to  show  that,  without  alco- 
hol, the  disease  could  not  occur. 

Obesity  and  fatty  heart,  for  both  which  conditions 
210 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  211 

alcohol  is  blamed,  are  probably  caused  by  excess  of 
food,  deficiency  of  exercise,  and,  in  the  case  of  heavy 
beer  drinkers,  by  the  enormous  fluid  intake — to  say 
nothing  of  the  additional  absorption  of  the  consider- 
able cereal  nutrient  contained  in  beer.  Perhaps  also, 
the  excessive  amount  of  liquid  imbibed  overworks  the 
kidneys  as  well  as  the  heart ;  and  that,  in  time,  might 
produce  disease  of  one  or  both  of  the  organs. 

"A  man  can  quite  ruin  his  blood  vessels  and  his 
heart  by  daily  increments  of  the  fluid  ingested,  even 
if  it  be  only  water."  (Starke.) 

Nevertheless,  excessive  drinking,  whether  of  beer 
or  of  whiskey,  may  lead  to  disease.  But,  while  the 
chronic  dram  drinker,  ingesting  less  liquid  than  the 
beer  drinker,  shows  shrinkage,  so  that  he  becomes 
lean,  ill-nourished,  haggard  and  wizened  (partially 
dried  up),  the  heavy  beer  drinker  becomes  bloated, 
broadened,  relaxed  and  fat. 

Quite  a  contrast,  which  could  not  be  accounted  for 
in  the  two  cases  by  the  alcohol  alone,  since  that  sub- 
stance is  taken  both  by  the  spirit  and  the  beer  drinker. 
Hence,  the  different  effects  must  have  other  causes 
than  alcohol,  such  as,  habitual  ingestion  of  different 
amounts  of  liquid  and  of  nourishment. 

Naturally,  the  effect  of  a  great  deal  of  alcohol  and 
a  little  water,  is  different  from  that  of  a  great  deal 
of  water  and  a  little  alcohol;  for,  alcohol  having  an 
affinity  for  water,  tends  to  "dry  up"  the  dram 
drinker,  but  not  the  beer  drinker,  seeing  that,  in  the 
latter 's  case,  the  consumption  of  water  far  exceeds 
the  consumption  of  alcohol. 


212      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Furthermore,  the  diseases  peculiar  to  the  excessive 
whiskey  drinker  are  not  the  same  as  those  to  which 
the  heavy  beer  drinker  is  susceptible;  the  former 
being  prone  to  atrophies  of  certain  organs,  and  to 
diseases  of  the  nervous  system;  whereas  the  diseases 
of  the  latter  are  likely  to  be  chiefly  circulatory,  with 
dilatations,  softenings,  and  fatty  degenerations,  often 
of  the  heart. 

But  the  idea  that  the  elimination  of  alcohol  would 
largely  eliminate  disease — using  the  term  disease  in 
a  wide  sense — is  phantastic,  to  say  the  least,  consid- 
ering the  small  part  alcohol  actually  plays  in  the  pro- 
duction of  disease — excepting,  of  course,  in  the  cases 
of  excessive  spirit  drinking. 

Further  proof  that  overnourishment  and  under- 
exercise,  rather  than  the  alcohol  ingested,  bring  on 
heart  disease  and  gout,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  those 
disorders  are  prevalent  in  the  obese,  who  eat  heartily 
and  exercise  little,  irrespective  of  whether  they  drink 
alcohol  or  not. 

All  know  that  the  shaky,  thin,  undernourished  dram 
drinker  rarely  has  heart  disease  or  gout — at  all  events, 
one  does  not  usually  associate  those  particular  dis- 
eases with  inebriety.  When  we  think  of  the  whiskey 
toper,  our  minds  advert  to  delirium  tremens,  mania 
a  potu,  paralyses,  and  nervous  disorders  generally,  but 
not  to  gout,  rheumatic  fever,  or  heart  disease. 

Consumption  is  a  disease  which  the  chronic  inebriate 
occasionally  contracts,  but,  then,  his  abstinence  from 
proper  nutriment,  rather  than  his  overindulgence  in 
alcohol,  is  the  predisposing  cause;  consumption — the 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  213 

disease  of  the  poor — attacking  usually  the  undernour- 
ished. Yet  I  think  the  sane  element  in  the  medical 
profession  will  agree,  when  I  say,  that  even  the  hard 
liquor  drinker,  who  retains  his  appetite  for  food,  is 
no  more  liable  to  tuberculosis  than  is  any  other  human 
being. 

There  is  no  end  to  the  "knocks"  administered  to  the 
Demon  Alcohol.  Let  there  be  an  increase  in  carnal 
assaults  upon  children,  or  an  increase  in  accidents, 
disease,  divorce,  idiocy,  brutality,  criminality,  murder, 
lunacy,  barrenness,  impotency,  morbidity,  suicide, 
illiteracy,  poverty,  mendicancy, — and  all  are  laid  to 
alcohol. 

For  a  long  time  it  was  believed  universally  that 
paresis,  a  slowly  progressive  and  incurable  degen- 
eration of  the  brain  cells  manifested  by  a  partial 
paralysis,  was  due  to  alcohol  and  "fast"  living.  Now 
every  physician  knows  that  paresis,  popularly, 
"softening  of  the  brain,"  is  a  parasyphilitic  affection; 
that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  consequence  of  syphilis,  and 
of  nothing  else.  Locomotor  ataxia  is  another  para- 
syphilitic  disease,  once  thought  caused  by  overindul- 
gence in  alcohol  and  sexual  intercourse. 

That  syphilis  is  frequently  a  potent  cause  of  kidney 
disease,  appears  strikingly  in  a  paper  on  The  Prev- 
alence of  Syphilis  in  the  Insane  Negro,  published  in 
a  recent  number  of  the  New  York  Medical  Journal. 

The  author  says  in  this  regard:  "Although  this 
paper  deals  with  the  prevalence  of  syphilis  in  the 
insane  negro,  I  can  not  refrain  from  mentioning  that 
twenty-six  cases  showed  renal  [kidney]  involvement. 


214      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Stengel  and  Austin,  in  speaking  of  syphilitic  nephritis 
[kidney  inflammation  due  to  syphilis],  mention  a 
chronic  form  in  which  syphilis  is  the  etiological 
[causative]  factor.  It  is  in  the  later  stages  of  syphilis 
that  amyloid  [waxy,  starch-like]  and  interstitial  kid- 
neys [kidney  degeneration  characterized  by  the  grad- 
ual substitution  of  connective,  for  the  normally  func- 
tioning, tissue]  are  common.  These  authors  believe 
that  there  exists  a  parenchymatous  type  of  nephritis 
[inflammation  of  the  true  kidney  tissue]  due  to  syph- 
ilis, characterized  by  albumin,  hyaline  [glass-like, 
translucent]  and  granular  casts,  with  occasional  tend- 
ency to  produce  oedema  [puffiness,  swelling]  of  renal 
distribution. 

"Out  of  eighty-four  cases  of  nephritis  they  found 
sixty -six  with  syphilis  as  a  possible  cause  of  the  dis- 
ease. [Italics  mine.]  Of  the  eighteen  remaining 
there  existed  in  eight  an  unquestionable  history  of 
syphilis  or  a  positive  Wassermann  [a  serum  test  for 
syphilis],  or  both.  In  six  no  "Wassermann  was 
secured;  while,  in  four,  syphilis  was  definitely  ex- 
cluded. There  is  no  doubt  that  our  cases  bear  out 
their  [Stengel's  and  Austin's]  statements. 

"The  coincidence  of  syphilis  and  nephritis  in  a 
middle-aged  man,  without  apparent  cause,  suggests 
that  syphilis  no  doubt  is  a  factor  in  the  chronic  form 
of  nephritis,  and  further  study  in  this  direction  sug- 
gests itself/' 

Certainly  a  remarkable  finding,  that,  out  of  eighty- 
four  cases  of  nephritis  in  insane  negroes,  in  only  four 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  215 

was  syphilis  definitely  excluded  as  a  causative  factor ! 

The  importance  of  the  above  in  casting  doubt  upon 
alcohol  as  a  cause  of  nephritis  [kidney  disease],  in 
many  cases,  can  hardly  be  overestimated,  if  we  re- 
member the  steady  increase  in  renal  disorders  during 
the  past  six  years,  and  consider  how  common  syphilis, 
or  at  least  some  syphilitic  taint,  is  among  the  general 
population. 

Many  of  the  statistics,  showing  the  number  of  deaths 
alleged  to  have  been  due  directly  or  indirectly  to 
alcohol,  which  are  triumphantly  pointed  at  by  the 
Anti-Alcoholists,  are  very  misleading,  as  it  is  man- 
ifestly impossible  to  know  positively  that  alcohol  has 
had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  such  and  such 
deaths — excepting  those  from  acute  alcohol  poison- 
ing, alcoholic  coma,  or  delirium  tremens. 

In  the  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe  (Ernest 
Gordon),  we  read  a  compilation,  drawn  from  sources 
all  over  the  globe,  of  the  evils  of  drink,  of  the  crimes 
committed  under  its  influence,  of  instances  of  insane 
and  bestial  drunkenness,  of  alcohol's  poisonous  effects 
upon  the  mind  and  body,  etc.,  etc. 

But  anyone,  who  searched  with  sufficient  pertin- 
acity, would  find  many  hundreds  of  examples  of  the 
ravages  of  far  less  evils  than  alcohol. 

In  Mr.  Gordon's  book,  and  in  Sir  Victor  Horsley's 
Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body,  to  mention  only  two, 
not  one  good  word  is  said  intentionally  of  alcohol, 
and  that,  to  me  at  least,  seems  not  fair,  but  savors 
strongly  of  bias.  Indeed,  Sir  Victor  Horsley  goes 


216      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

so  far  as  to  say  that  syphilis,  which  everyone  knows 
is  caused  by  a  specific  germ,  a  spirochaete,  is  caused 
indirectly  by  alcohol. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  present  book,  it  has  been 
found  necessary,  in  the  cause  of  fairness  and  the 
whole  truth,  to  say  some  bad  as  well  as  much  good, 
about  this  extraordinary  substance,  which  once  our 
Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  compassionately  changed  water 
into. 

The  extravagance  of  asseveration,  in  parts  of  The 
Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe,  borders  upon  the 
ludicrous.  For  example,  on  page  68,  we  are  told  that 
"The  miners  of  the  Borinage,  who  drink  spirits  and 
petroleum,  often  a  litre  a  day,  have  become  a  race  of 
dwarfs/' 

Now,  as  we  are  not  told  that  the  miners  of  the 
Borinage  were  in  the  habit  of  drinking  their  spirits 
and  petroleum  as  babies,  we  fail  to  see  how  even  that 
vile  mixture  could  have  affected  their  stature.  If  it 
be  meant  that  their  pernicious  habit  caused  them  to 
beget  undersized  offspring,  we  would  still  be  in  the 
dark  as  to  whether  it  was  the  alcohol,  the  petroleum, 
or  their  anaerobic  occupation,  which  had  so  sadly 
truncated  them. 

Again,  in  the  same  informing  book,  on  page  70,  Dr. 
Presl,  quoted  by  Mr.  Gordon,  tells  us  that,  "The  ad- 
vancing alcoholism  in  Bohemia  is  showing  itself  in 
forced  sales  of  farms,  and  in  the  decreasing  military- 
physical  value  of  those  summoned  to  the  colours. 
The  region  most  affected  begins  at  Tabor  and  spreads 
over  the  Bohemian-Moravian  plateau.  In  the  deep- 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  217 

cut  valleys  numerous  cretins  live  under  the  poorest 
conditions.  The  chief  crop  is  potatoes  for  distilling 
and  a  great  number  of  distilleries  are  to  be  found 
here." 

Are  we  then  to  infer  from  the  statement  of  Dr. 
Presl  that  the  prevalence  of  cretinism  in  "the  deep- 
cut  valleys"  of  that  region  is  one  by-product  of  the 
great  number  of  distilleries  to  be  found  there  ? 

We  might,  if  we  did  not  know  that  cretinism  is 
supposed  to  result  from  certain  atmospheric  and  topo- 
graphical conditions,  which  are  not  well  understood, 
associated  with  hereditary  predisposition  and  un- 
suitable diet;  and  that  deficient  functioning  of  the 
thyroid  gland  is  also  a  contributory  cause — but,  alas, 
no  authority  mentions  cretinism  and  alcohol  in  the 
same  breath.  At  all  events,  thyroid  extract  has  been 
administered  to  cretins  by  physicians,  often  with 
marked  benefit. 

And  now  listen  to  this  horror  story. 

"On  Sunday  nights,  and  on  the  nights  of  the  nu- 
merous church  festivals, ' '  said  a  speaker  at  the  Tenth 
Congress  against  Alcoholism,  l '  one  sees  in  the  country 
[Belgium]  sights  of  savagery  unparalleled  among 
civilized  people.  Bands  of  persons  in  an  advanced 
state  of  intoxication  and  armed  with  knives  or  re- 
volvers, fight  among  themselves  or  attack  passersby, 
just  for  the  pleasure  of  shedding  blood.  They  leave 
wounded  and  frequently  dead  persons  on  the  roads. 
Their  attacks  on  property  are  often  incredible.  They 
break  windows,  smash  in  doors,  destroy  fences,  and 
ravage  fields  and  gardens,  and  often  set  fire  to  build- 


218      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

ings.  Recently  at  Eckeren,  near  Antwerp,  a  band 
of  drunkards  from  a  tavern  raided  a  workman 's  house, 
dragged  his  wife  out  of  bed,  and  clubbed  the  husband 
to  death. 

' '  These  brutes  do  not  drink  hard  liquor,  but  alcohol 
in  the  form  of  from  ten  to  twenty  glasses  of  beer. 
This  drink  [beer]  is  the  chief  stimulus  to  crime  in 
the  country  in  Belgium,  as  distilled  drinks  in  the 
cities.  There  has  been  in  the  country  at  large  a  con- 
siderable diminution  in  the  consumption  of  distilled 
liquor,  but  that  of  beer  constantly  increases  and  with 
it  criminality  rises. "  .  .  . 

But  just  think,  Mr.  Speaker,  of  how  many  drink 
beer,  and  who,  yet,  never  dream  of  clubbing  husbands 
to  death,  or  of  ravaging  fields  and  gardens,  or  even 
of  setting  fire  to  buildings! 

Then,  too,  kindly  explain — if  alcohol  instigated  all 
the  crimes  you  have  so  graphically  enumerated — why 
should  such  crimes  increase  when,  according  to  your 
own  statement,  less  alcohol  is  consumed  ?  For,  if  you 
remember,  you  said  that,  as  the  consumption  of  dis- 
tilled liquors — containing  much  alcohol — has  de- 
creased, and  as  the  drinking  of  beer — containing  very 
little  alcohol — has  increased,  so  has  criminality  risen. 

In  short,  if  the  theorem  be  true,  that  the  more  al- 
cohol is  consumed,  the  more  crimes  are  committed, 
how  could  it  be  that  in  Belgium  crimes  should  de- 
crease as  the  consumption  of  alcohol  increased ;  so  that 
there  it  would  be  the  more  alcohol,  the  less  crime,  and 
the  less  alcohol,  the  more  crime.  Really  we  do  not 
quite  understand,  unless  it  could  be  that  the  enor- 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  219 

mous  intake  of  that  usually  harmless  substance,  water, 
should  make  the  Belgians  insane! — But  let  us  con- 
tinue. 

"We  saw  some  years  ago  at  a  village  kermess  a 
young  and  inoffensive  stranger  literally  cut  to  pieces 
with  knives  by  some  persons  who  had  been  drinking 
beer.  This  simply  because  his  Dutch  accent  had 
aroused  their  anger.  Hundreds  of  savage  peasants 
stood  around  applauding  and  throwing  stones  at  the 
dying  man.  The  name  of  this  charming  place  should 
be  known.  It  was  Wavre  Notre  Dame,  in  the  province 
of  Antwerp. 

"This  is  the  effect  of  beer,  which  some  naive  per- 
sons would  have  us  use  instead  of  spirits. ' '  * 

I  have  quoted  the  above  at  length  to  show  to  what 
absurd  exaggeration  a  fixed  fanatical  belief  will  some- 
times carry  a  man.  It  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  hodge- 
podge honeycombing  the  book.  Evidently,  the 
speaker  at  the  "Tenth  Congress  against  Alcoholism," 
whoever  he  was,  did  not  like  beer ;  and  if  he  did,  would 
any  reasonable  quantity  of  that  mild  beverage — even 
"from  ten  to  twenty  glasses" — cause  him  to  see  a 
tithe  of  the  horrible  things  he  declares  he  was  an 
eye-witness  of?  Fanaticism  seems  to  have  been  in 
him  more  potent  than  alcohol. 

And  what  manner  of  men  must  those  Belgians  be, 
if  ten  glasses  of  beer  could  cause  them  to  commit 
such  atrocious  crimes!  If  the  stories  are  true,  and 
we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  the  "speaker,"  we 
perforce  conclude  that  the  Belgians  alluded  to 

i  Quoted  in  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe,  pp.  68-69. 


220      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

were  themselves  infinitely  viler  than  the  vilest  beer. 

Another  speaker,  this  time  at  the  Seventeenth  In- 
ternational Congress  against  Alcoholism,  had  this  to 
say:  ''In  his  passion  for  alcohol  the  peasant  becomes 
the  cause  of  a  morbid  heredity,  of  social  downfall. 
From  the  union  of  these  degenerates  follows  either 
sterility,  or  a  vitiated  offspring  cib  ovo.  The  chil- 
dren retain  an  indelible  stamp,  the  stigmata  of  alco- 
holism, and,  when  they  reach  maturity,  they  pro- 
create, in  their  turn,  weaklings,  idiots,  epileptics, 
brains  of  an  arrested  development,  furrowed  with 
misery  and  corrupted  with  sickness  to  which  they 
soon  succumb.  From  this  sad  state  of  things  comes 
the  frightful  depopulation  which  threatens  our  coun- 
try." [France]. 

Thus  alcoholism,  according  to  this  speaker,  tends 
to  destroy  itself,  by  inducing  "sterility,"  or,  if  there 
are  children,  "a  morbid  heredity,"  to  which  "they 
soon  succumb." 

Now  while  we  agree  that  chronic  alcoholism  is  an 
evil  which  tends  to  destroy  itself,  we  refuse  to  believe 
that  that  condition,  or  disease,  is  so  widely  prevalent 
in  France  that :  * '  From  this  sad  state  of  things  comes 
the  frightful  depopulation  which  threatens  our  coun- 
try." Alcoholism,  could  hardly  be  the  "cause"  of 
the  depopulation  of  France ! 

Let  us  now  discuss  alcohol  as  a  "cause"  of  tuber- 
culosis. 

"Without  alcohol,"  says  M.  Reinach,  "the  rural 
populations  of  France  would  be  practically  untouched 
by  tuberculosis.  As  it  is,  alcoholism  is  destroying  the 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  221 

peasantry  of  the  healthiest  and  most  beautiful  regions 
by  inducing  tuberculosis. ' '  * 

We,  not  being  omniscient  like  M.  Reinach,  do  not 
hold  with  him  that,  "without  alcohol,  the  rural  pop- 
ulation of  France  would  be  practically  untouched  by 
tuberculosis."  We  do  not  know.  We  believe,  how- 
ever, that  there  would  still  be  some  tuberculosis  even 
in  the  rural  populations  of  France,  were  there  no  such 
substance  as  alcohol. — But  we  have  not  M.  Rein- 
ach's  faith. 

On  page  65  of  the  same  entertaining  volume,  we 
are  apprised  that:  "All  the  investigations  made  by 
our  colleagues,  Drs.  Jacquet,  Legendre,  Faisans,  Bar- 
bier,  de  Lavarenne,  and  by  the  Societe  des  Medicins 
des  Hopitaux,  of  Paris,  have  been  decisive. " 

Two  "decisions"  will  do;  others  being  in  like  vein. 

1.  "On  a  basis  of  717  cases  of  pulmonary  tubercu- 
losis, observed  three  years  at  the  Hopital  Boucicaut,  I 
[one  of  the  above  physicians]  have  been  able  to  affirm 
that,  en  bloc,  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  workmen  under 
my  care  are  alcoholists,  and  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
Parisian  workmen  above  thirty  years,  affected  with 
pulmonary  phthisis   [consumption],  are  alcoholists." 

2.  "Of  2,000  cases  of  nervous  disorder  cared  for  in 
one  year  by  Professor  Raymond  at  the  Salpetriere, 
1,350  had  alcoholism  as  efficient  cause." 

In  regard  to  ' '  decision ' '  No.  2,  we  have  already 
shown  that,  among  those  with  "nervous  disorder," 
more  drink  because  they  are  insane,  than  are  insane 
because  they  drink.  So,  until  Professor  Raymond 

i  Quoted  in  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe,  p.  61. 


222      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

proves  that,  out  of  his  2,000  cases,  1,350  were  made 
insane  by  drink,  we  reserve  the  right  to  remain 
sceptical.  At  present  it  seems  probable  that,  of  the 
1,350  who  "had  alcoholism  as  efficient  cause,"  many 
had  original  psychoses  which  were  fallow  ground  for 
alcohol  to  work  upon. 

In  regard  to  " decision"  No.  1,  we  would  say  that 
probably  80  per  cent.,  or  more  of  the  normal  workmen 
in  France,  drink,  more  or  less ;  and  that  perhaps  even 
nine-tenths  of  the  ordinary  Parisian  workmen,  above 
thirty  years,  drink  also. 

Hence,  the  conclusion  of  the  learned  physician  that, 
of  the  717  cases  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  80  per 
cent,  were  alcoholists,  and  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
Parisian  workmen,  above  thirty  years,  affected  with 
pulmonary  phthisis,  were  alcoholists,  would  be  more 
valuable,  if  we  knew  just  what  this  physician  means 
by  ' '  alcoholist. "  But  that  term,  whether  intention- 
ally or  unintentionally,  he  does  not  specify. 

Again,  it  might  well  be  that  a  large  percentage  of 
those  who  found  that  they  had  tuberculosis,  would 
take  to  excessive  drinking  to  blunt  their  misery  and 
worry  over  their  desperate  condition. — But  let  that 
pass ;  and  let  us  ask,  instead,  what  is  an  alcoholist  ? 

Strictly  speaking,  an  alcoholist  is  anyone  who  in- 
gests the  least  quantity  of  alcohol.  Thus,  one  who 
drinks  one  glass  or  two  glasses  of  wine,  or  two  or 
three  glasses  of  beer,  daily,  is  an  alcoholist.  We  can 
not  believe,  however,  that  such  moderate  drinking 
would  either  induce  consumption,  or  drive  a  man 
mad. 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  223 

It  is  common  knowledge  that  men  who  drink  beer 
or  ale  are  generally  well  nourished.  Also,  it  is  well- 
known  that  men  of  such  type  are  not  subject  to  pul- 
monary phthisis;  that  lingering  disease  usually  at- 
tacking the  poor,  anaemic,  and  undernourished.  In- 
deed, there  is  a  wide-spread  belief  that  the  inhalation 
of  vapors  arising  from  beer  vats  will  occasionally 
arrest  the  progress  of  phthisis.  But  that  is  a  "cure" 
of  which  I  have  no  personal  knowledge. 

Sir  Victor  Horsley,  writing  of  consumption  and 
alcohol,  quotes  "a  great  French  physician,  Dr. 
Brouardel ' ' : 

''Alcoholism  is  in  effect  the  most  powerful  factor 
in  the  propagation  of  tuberculosis.  The  most  vigor- 
ous man,  who  becomes  alcoholic,  is  without  resistance 
before  it." 

Respecting  the  above,  while  I  am  not  writing  in 
favor  of,  but  on  the  contrary,  am  strongly  against 
alcoholic  excesses,  any  man  of  ordinary  intelligence 
knows  that  Dr.  Brouardel's  statement  is,  to  say  the 
least,  an  exaggeration.  Every  human  being  is  more 
or  less  exposed  to  tuberculosis  all  his  life ;  yet,  every 
chronic  alcoholic,  who  is  necessarily  among  those 
exposed,  does  not  contract  tuberculosis — some  do,  of 
course,  but  not  all.  Neither  would  a  roundup  and 
thorough  physical  examination  of  all  chronic  inebri- 
ates reveal  the  presence  of  well-defined  tuberculosis 
in  even  a  majority  of  them. 

How  easy  it  is  to  be  deceived  by  "cures"  for  con- 
sumption, and,  especially,  by  statistics,  true  on  their 
face,  but  of  no  real  significance,  is  shown  in  a  paper, 


224      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

by  Dr.  Maurice  Fishberg,  The  Traditional  Fallacies 
of  Tuberculosis,  which  appeared  in  a  recent  issue  of 
the  New  York  Medical  Journal.  Dr.  Fishberg  speaks 
with  the  authority  of  long  experience  as  Clinical  Pro- 
fessor of  Medicine  in  the  University  and  Bellevue  Hos- 
pital Medical  College.  He  says: 

"Close  analysis  shows  clearly  the  fallacy  of  testing 
statistically  a  remedy  for  tuberculosis.  The  fact  is 
that  over  50  per  cent,  of  the  patients  suffering  from 
pulmonary  tuberculosis  will,  without  any  treatment 
whatever,  survive  five  years  after  the  onset  of  their 
disease,  and  remain  more  or  less  efficient  at  their  oc- 
cupation. 

"So  that,  when  discoverers  claim  that  their  several 
diverse  remedies  will  cure  more  than  half  the  cases, 
they  are  safe  in  their  claims,  provided  their  remedies 
are  at  least  harmless.  And  if  the  discoverer  asserts 
that  only  selected  cases  are  suitable  for  his  cure,  he 
may  prove  that  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  his  cases  are 
benefited.  In  fact,  he  may  use  distilled  water,  bread 
pills,  or  even  prayer,  and  he  will  get  the  same  re- 
sults." 

Dr.  Fishberg 's  assertions  seem  the  more  plausible 
when  we  consider  that  it  is  a  notorious  and  ascertained 
fact  that  over  90  per  cent,  of  those  upon  whom  au- 
topsies have  been  made  showed  healed  tuberculosis 
lesions  of  the  lungs,  proving  that  at  some  period  of 
their  lives  they  had  had  tuberculosis  and  had  re- 
covered without  medicaments  or  other  treatment. 

As  showing,  again,  how  even  the  most  eminent  sci- 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  225 

entists  may  be  mistaken  in  their  "infallible"  tests, 
I  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  a  little  further  from  Dr. 
Fishberg's  paper. 

"Some  six  or  eight  years  ago  when  the  cutaneous 
tuberculin  test  [a  specific  reaction  to  the  injection  of 
tuberculin]  was  considered  a  valuable  diagnostic  pro- 
cedure, a  positive  reaction  was  deemed  a  sure  indi- 
cation of  tuberculosis  disease  in  a  child  of  school  age. 
But,  when  we  found  that  over  seventy  per  cent,  of 
children  gave  positive  reactions  to  tuberculin,  we 
ceased  to  consider  it  of  importance." 

But  if  physicians  of  standing  were  incredulous  as 
to  the  infallibility  of  the  test,  not  so  were  some  of  the 
opponents  of  alcohol. 

With  hands  upraised  in  righteous  horror  they  pro- 
claimed the  fact  that,  of  every  hundred  children 
"tested"  for  tuberculosis  in  the  schools,  seventy  were 
found  to  be  infected  with  that  dreadful  disease;  and 
that  "fact"  was  given  as  "proof"  that  t*he  human 
race,  owing  to  alcohol  and  to  nothing  else,  was  de- 
generating with  such  awful  rapidity  that  nearly 
three-fourths  of  the  next  generation  were  withering 
in  the  blossom  of  their  tender  childhood ! 

We  come  now  to  alcohol  as  a  "cause"  of  cancer. 

Of  course  all  strictly  monopartisan  Prohibitionists 
hold  alcohol  to  be  the  cause  of  the  steady  increase  in 
carcinomatous  growths  during  the  past  decade. 

Now,  that  alcoholic  excesses  do,  in  some  cases,  in- 
crease liability  to  cancer,  may  be  true;  for  the  fre- 
quent potions  of  heavy  drinkers,  particularly  spirit 


226      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

drinkers,  irritate  the  mucous  lining  of  the  stomach, 
thus  possibly  predisposing  to  ulcer,  which,  in  its  turn, 
may  predispose  to  cancer. 

But  I  am  not  willing  to  admit  the  further  claim 
that  the  moderate,  or  occasional,  indulgence  in  the 
milder  alcoholic  liquids,  such  as  beer,  predisposes  to 
cancer  in  the  slightest  degree;  seeing  that,  in  such 
cases,  there  is  no  true  or  unusual  irritation. 

If  it  were  true  that  alcohol  in  small  quantities  did 
irritate  the  stomach,  then  would  the  ingestion  of  all 
carbohydrates  and  sugar  be  dangerous,  inasmuch  as  all 
starches  and  sugars  are  split  up,  by  the  bodily  fer- 
ments, into  alcohol,  carbonic  acid,  etc. — a  fact,  which 
I  notice  Anti-Alcoholists  carefully  refrain  from  men- 
tioning. They  say  simply  the  half-truth  that  ' '  starch 
and  sugar  are  changed  into  carbonic  acid,  water,  and 
other  substances." 

I  shall  go  further  by  saying  that,  in  my  opinion, 
moderate  indulgence  in  the  lighter  alcoholic  bever- 
ages, by  improving  appetite  and  nutrition  and  thus 
favoring  an  increase  in  body  weight,  acts  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  cancer;  that  disease  attacking  chiefly  those 
who,  through  poverty,  or,  worse,  ill-health,  become 
insufficiently  nourished. 

Before  dogmatizing  from  the  history  statistics  of 
diseases  generally,  it  would  be  well  to  remember,  par- 
ticularly when  alcohol  is  given,  by  too  often  preju- 
diced observers,  as  the  " cause"  of  such  and  such  dis- 
ease, that,  when  some  hundreds  or  thousands  of  cases 
are  collated  and  their  histories  taken,  most  of  the 
patients,  when  questioned,  will  acknowledge  some 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  227 

present  or  past  indulgence  in  alcohol,  simply  because 
a  majority  of  the  population  drinks  or  has  drunk  more 
or  less.  In  truth,  one  who  has  never  at  any  time 
in  his  life  tasted  any  kind  of  alcoholic  beverage  would 
be  a  rara  avis. 

Hence,  when  we  read  that  so  many  per  cent,  of  the 
cases  of  such  and  such  disease  "showed  a  history  of 
alcoholism,"  we  should  be  cautious  in  accepting  the 
implication  before  we  have  learned  just  what  was 
meant  by  "a  history  of  alcoholism." 

Did  it  mean  the  history  of  one  who  confessed  to 
one  glass  of  beer  every  twenty-four  hours,  or  of  one 
to  whom  an  average  of  a  glass  of  beer  every  hour  had 
not  been  unusual  ?  Or  did  ' '  a  history  of  alcoholism ' ' 
relate  to  a  steady  dram  drinker,  or  to  one  to  whom  in- 
dulgence in  a  single  " finger"  of  whiskey  constituted 
an  epochal  episode? 

We,  therefore,  request  sincere  Prohibitionists  kindly 
to  be  more  specific  in  their  reasons  for  their  "deci- 
sions" hereafter;  as  we  believe  that  most  of  the  sta- 
tistics, laboriously  compiled  for  use  in  the  numerous 
vicious  attacks  upon  alcohol,  have  been  entirely  too 
easily  found. 

While  turning  the  pages  of  Sir  Victor  Horsley's 
Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body,  I  was  surprised  to  find 
that,  on  page  128,  that  eminent  scientist  ascribes  to 
alcohol  the  production  of  that  life-blasting  disease, 
epilepsy.  He  states: 

"The  disease  known  as  epilepsy  is  characterized  by 
convulsive  seizures,  which  are  due  to  varying  forms 
of  brain  excitation.  Consequently,  it  is  produced  by 


228      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

different  causes.  Thus  certain  drugs,  especially  ab- 
sinthe and  alcohol,  are  particularly  excitants  of  the 
cerebral  cortex,  and  produce  epileptic  fits.  [Italics 
mine.]  .  .  . 

"Chronic  alcoholic  patients  frequently  become  ep- 
ileptic. ' ' 

The  above  assertions  are  so  astounding  that  I  be- 
lieve few  physicians  would  be  willing  to  go  on  record 
as  agreeing  with  Dr.  Horsley.  Many  physicians  of 
the  highest  repute  now  consider  epilepsy  a  true  germ 
disease. 

Not  long  ago,  Dr.  Eeed  published  a  paper  on  ep- 
ilepsy, in  which  he  positively  declared,  not  only  that 
epilepsy  was  caused  by  a  specific  germ,  but  that  he 
had  succeeded  in  isolating  from  blood  cultures  ob- 
tained from  epileptics  a  new  micro-organism,  which, 
in  his  opinion,  produced  epilepsy.  He  called  the  or- 
ganism, bacillus  epilepticus;  and  that  has  since  be- 
come known  as  "Reed's  bacillus." 

Dr.  Reed's  discovery,  however,  it  is  only  fair  to 
state,  was  made  some  time  after  the  publication  of 
Sir  Victor  Horsley 's  book. 

"We  acknowledge  that  alcoholic  excesses  could  excite 
convulsions  only  in  those  who  are  either  potentially 
or  actually  epileptics. 

Another  scientist,  Dr.  Legrain,  blames  alcohol  for 
both  adiposity  and  tenuity.  He  says:  "Fatness  and 
sometimes  leanness,  all  sorts  of  non-assimilations,  are 
the  signs  [of  alcohol]  which  are  apparent." — It 
seems  that  alcohol,  like  the  man  in  the  fairy  tale  who 
drank  the  Atlantic  ocean,  can  do  anything. 


ALCOHOL  AND  DISEASE  229 

Sir  Victor  Horsley  kindly  shows  us  on  page  132 
(Alcohol  and  the  Human  Body)  six  separate  drawings 
of  corpuscles,  or  nerve  cells,  magnified  750  diameters. 
No.  1  is  a  fine,  robust  corpuscle,  which  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  look  at;  No.  2  is,  alas,  degenerating;  while  Nos.  3, 
4,  5  and  6,  appear  sick,  sicker,  still  sicker,  and  mori- 
bund. Their  purport  is  to  demonstrate  pictorially 
the  ravages  of  that  old  enemy  alcohol  upon  that  first 
healthy  corpuscle,  blushing  in  the  pride  of  his  young 
strength. 

At  first,  I  was  inexpressibly  shocked  at  the  melan- 
choly sight  those  sick  and  rapidly  degenerating  cor- 
puscles presented,  until,  reading  an  explanatory  note, 
I  learned  that  the  last  five  photo-micrographs  had  been 
taken  from  successive  drops  of  the  fluid  "  taken  from 
the  spinal  cord  of  [a]  patient  who  died  after  a  linger- 
ing and  painful  illness  brought  on  by  alcohol." 
[Page  135.] 

Then  I  breathed  more  easily  as  I  reflected  that 
probably  No.  6 — the  sickest  cell — had  been  photo- 
graphed synchronously  with  the  man's  death — which 
painful  event  no  doubt  had  disagreed  with  his  cells 
even  more  than  had  alcohol. 

Strangely  enough,  Professor  Horsley,  in  discussing 
pneumonia,  grants  that  the  pneumococcus  produces 
that  disease;  but  he  avers  that  alcohol  "opens  the 
door  and  lets  him  in. "  As  he  puts  it :  "  The  alcohol 
habit  depresses  the  healthy  resistance  of  the  body  to 
the  organism"  [pneumococcus]. 

Now  I  had  thought  that  a  stiff  dose  of  hot  water, 
whiskey  and  sugar,  given  to  one  who  has  been  thor- 


230      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

oughly  chilled,  by  perhaps  an  involuntary  immersion 
in  the  winter  time,  had  more  than  once  averted  pneu- 
monia.— But  possibly  I  am  wrong. 

To  conclude  this  chapter  fittingly  I  would  most  re- 
spectfully suggest  that  Sir  Victor  Horsley,  or  some 
equally  eminent  scientist,  raise  cultures  from  alcohol, 
isolate  something,  and  call  it,  say,  the  alcohococcus. 
For,  only  a  naked  germ,  formidably  named,  could 
plausibly  be  made  responsible  for  every  ill  to  which 
our  flesh  is  heir. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE  NON-ALCOHOLIC   CAUSE  OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL 
DETERIORATION 

EVERY  thing,  event,  or  happening  has  a  cause.  In 
certain  ways  man  has  been  steadily  deteriorating  for 
the  last  hundred  years.  Obviously,  his  deterioration 
has  been  physical,  and  not  mental;  for,  mentally  he 
has  always  advanced,  and  is  still  advancing  rapidly. 

I  shall  now  try  to  show  the  true  cause  of  man 's  con- 
tinuing physical  deterioration.  In  my  demonstration 
I  shall  give  no  hearsay  evidence,  but  just  facts  de- 
duced from  actual  personal  experience  covering  a 
period  of  thirty  years. 

While  the  fact  of  man's  progressive  physical  de- 
terioration is  known  to  physicians  and  scientists,  none 
seems,  as  yet,  to  have  discovered  the  cause.  The  Pro- 
hibitionists say  that  it  is  alcohol ;  Anti-Smoking  Soci- 
eties declare  it  is  tobacco ;  others  aver  it  is  immoderate 
coffee  and  tea  drinking;  and  still  others  that  it  is 
the  general  hurry,  scurry  and  worry  of  all  civilized 
peoples. 

My  personal  experience  has  been  that  the  cause 
lies  in  none  of  those.  I  have  hurried,  worried,  and 
scurried  all  my  life ;  I  have  always  drunk  coffee  and 
tea;  I  have  smoked,  at  times,  incessantly;  and  I  have 

231 


232      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

indulged  in  alcohol,  in  the  form  of  cream  ale,  daily* 
for  the  last  thirty  years.  But,  though  forty-six  years 
old,  I  have  not,  as  yet,  physically  deteriorated  in  the 
slightest  degree. 

Nevertheless,  there  remains  the  stubborn  fact  of  a 
certain  physical  deterioration  in  the  general  popula- 
tion; and  as  no  effect  is  without  a  cause,  what,  then, 
is  the  cause? 

If,  in  this  book,  I  have  succeeded  in  convincing  any 
that  alcohol  has  been  greatly  maligned,  that  many 
of  the  vicious  attacks  upon  it  have  had  no  basis  of 
real  evidence,  of  reason,  or  of  common  sense;  that, 
in  a  word,  its  influence  for  evil  and  as  a  deteriorator 
of  the  human  race  has  been,  at  least,  greatly  exag- 
gerated— I  say,  if  I  have  done  this,  it  is  but  right 
that  I  should  reconstruct  where  I  have  destroyed,  by 
demonstrating  the  true  deteriorator,  or  cause;  and 
that,  in  so  far  as  I  am  able,  I  purpose  to  do. 

It  is  true  that  science  has  reduced  the  general  death 
rate  from  20.57  per  1000  of  estimated  population,  dur- 
ing the  year  1900,  to  13.89  per  1000,  during  the  year 
1916.  It  is  true  also  that  science  has  reduced  the  in- 
fant mortality  rate  from  125.6  per  1000  births  re- 
ported, for  the  year  1910,  to  93.1,  for  the  year  1916.  » 

Now  how  have  those  death  rates  been  reduced  ?     By 
better  hygiene  and  sanitation,  and  by  better  control, 
of  infectious  and  contagious  diseases,  even  to  the  point 
of  blotting  out  some,  in  certain  localities,   and  of 
greatly  limiting  the  scope  and  virulence  of  others. 

Thus,  the  annual  deaths  from  tuberculosis,  typhoid  r 
fever,  measles,  scarlet  fever,  whooping  cough,  diph- 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     233 

theria  and  croup,  have  decreased  considerably,  pro- 
portionally to  the  population,  since  1910. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  number  of  deaths  from 
other  diseases  has  either  not  decreased,  or  has  in- 
creased considerably,  proportionally  to  the  population, 
since  1910. 

For  example,  pneumonia  claimed  about  as  many  vic- 
tims in  1916  as  it  has  in  previous  years;  while  the 
death  rate  for  acute  bronchitis,  for  the  year  1916, 
showed  an  increase. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  " certain  ways"  in  which 
man  has  deteriorated.  Science  has  done  its  best;  it 
has  helped  man  much,  and  all  it  could.  But  science 
has  failed  in  certain  respects. 

For,  there  are  still  other  diseases,  more  serious  than 
any  I  have  enumerated,  which  have  not  only  not  de- 
creased, but  have  greatly  increased.     These  diseases! 
are  chiefly  circulatory,  and  are  peculiar  to  adult  life.  I 
They  are  apoplexy,  heart  diseases,  Bright  '&  disease, » 
nephritis  (acute  and  chronic),  diabetes,  and  cancer. 

The  prevalence  of  those  latter  diseases  has  been  in- 
creasing steadily,  especially  during  the  last  ten  years ; 
while  diseases  of  the  heart,  during  that  same  length 
of  time,  have  increased  by  33  per  cent. ! 

Now  it  is  peculiar  and  extremely  significant,  in  view 
of  what  I  shall  have  to  say  presently,  that  the  only 
diseases  which  science  has  found  itself  unable  to  cope 
with  are  the  circulatory  diseases. 

Why  is  it,  scientists  have  repeatedly  asked  them- 
selves, that  we  have  fought  successfully  all  diseases, 
excepting  the  circulatory  diseases;  and  that  only  the 


234      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

latter  have  increased,  certain  of  them  enormously,  in 
spite  of  our  most  strenuous  efforts? 

Faulty  diet,  cry  most ;  alcohol,  cry  many ;  tobacco, 
cry  some ;  but  none  thinks  of  the  true  cause — perhaps 
because  of  its  simplicity. 

If  the  reader  will  notice,  the  diseases  which  science 
has  been  able  to  control,  often  to  a  wonderful  extent, 
have  been  the  true  germ  diseases,  proved  to  be  in- 
fectious and  caused  by  specific  micro-organisms;  in 
other  words,  every  germ  disease  is  due  to  a  specific 
entity,  which  science  has,  in  most  cases,  isolated,  classi- 
fied, and  afterward  been  able  to  destroy  by  some  other 
specific  entity  known  to  be  antidotal  to  it. 

Some  contend  that  heart  and  kidney  complaints, 
and  cancer,  are  likewise  germ  diseases;  but  their 
assumption  has  not  been  proved,  and  is  probably  in- 
correct. No  doubt  they  are  favored  by  a  sluggish  cir- 
culation, seeing  that  they  are  circulatory  diseases,  not 
commonly  met  with  in  children,  or  in  those  whose  cir- 
culation is  active. 

Time  was  when  man  was  as  healthy  as  now  are  the 
feral  animals.  In  the  sweat  of  his  body  he  earned  his 
bread,  and,  incidentally,  his  health,  strength  and  re- 
pose. He  degenerated  when  he  became  luxurious; 
becoming  at  the  same  time  nervous,  sleepless  and 
strengthless  (asthenic). 

Hence,  while  the  wild  animals  have  been  steadily 
eliminating  the  diseases  peculiar  to  their  species, 
man's  civilization,  and  often  Sybaritic  luxury,  have 
multiplied  his  diseases,  both  in  their  variety  and  in 
their  virulence. 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     235 

Of  all  the  circulatory  diseases,  heart  disease  is  the 
most  prevalent  in  adult  life.  In  children,  heart  dis- 
ease, unless  congenital,  or  there  is  an  hereditary  pre- 
disposition to  it,  is  rare. 

I  remember  reading  lately  the  report  of  the  result 
of  an  examination  of  the  hearts  of  all  public  school 
children  in  this  city  (New  York).  The  figures,  show- 
ing the  number  of  cases  of  heart  disease  among  those 
children,  I  have  not  by  me,  but  they  were  so  extremely 
low  that  the  committee  which  had  conducted  the  exam- 
inations expressed  their  great  gratification  that  the 
hearts  of  such  a  large  number  of  children  had  proved 
to  be  sound. 

It  is  common  knowledge,  .also,  that  young  adults 
do  not,  as  a  rule,  suffer  from  cardiac  derange- 
ments. 

Heart  disease,  therefore,  is  prevalent  only  among 
the  middle-aged  and  the  elderly;  and,  consequently, 
is  more  often  acquired  than  inherited.  All  which, 
too,  is  in  keeping  with  the  biological  law  that  acquired 
characters,  or  defects,  are  not  inheritable. 

Now  why  do  so  many  of  those  born  with  normal 
hearts  acquire  some  disease  of  that  organ  only  after 
they  have  reached  or  passed  middle-age?  Why  do 
they  not  oftener  acquire  heart  disease  when  they  are 
young?  For,  certainly,  the  human  animal  subjects 
his  heart  to  far  greater  and  longer-continued  strain 
when  he  is  young  and  vigorous,  than  when  he  is  old 
and  comparatively  inactive. 

The  answer  is  that  heart  disease  is  caused,  in  prob- 
ably ninety-nine  cases  out  of  every  hundred,  by  a 


236      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

sluggish  circulation  induced  by  habitual  physical  in- 
activity. 

But  the  laity  do  not  know  that.  I  was  talking  the 
other  day  with  a  retired  fireman  about  fifty  years  old. 
He  spoke  about  the  exercise  he  used  to  take  when  in 
the  fire  department.  I  asked  him  if  he  still  exercised. 
He  said,  ' '  Oh,  no.  I  don 't  think  it 's  good  for  a  man 
of  my  age  to  take  any  active  exercise ;  it's  apt  to  bring 
on  heart  disease."  And  that  man  was  above  the  av- 
erage in  intelligence.  Truly  the  public  needs  infor- 
mation more  than  reformation ! 

Fire  horses  that  gallop  through  the  streets  hauling 
a  heavy  engine  are  withdrawn  from  active  service 
when  they  become  old,  because  they  are  then  not  quite 
so  quick  as  young  horses;  but  their  strenuous  exer- 
cise, even  when  they  are  very  old,  rarely  "  brings  on 
heart  disease/'  While  men  are  not  horses,  they  are 
like  horses  in  that  they  are  animals;  and  active  ex- 
ercise is  as  good  for  one  animal  as  for  another. 

Children  romp  and  play — are  seldom  quiet.  Young 
adults  go  in  for  athletics,  run,  play  base-ball,  foot- 
ball, work  in  a  gymnasium  "to  get  strong/'  swim,  row, 
wrestle  and  box.  Thus,  their  circulation,  regularly 
stimulated  by  exercise,  remains  active,  except  in  the 
hours  of  repose ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  rarely  in  early 
life  is  any  circulatory  disease  acquired. 

Now  let  us  see  what  happens  after  the  young  man 
has  been  graduated  from  his  high  school  or  college. 
As  soon  as  possible  thereafter  he  begins  his  serious 
work  in  life  by  entering  some  business  or  profession. 
He  becomes  a  man,  and,  as  a  man,  casts  away  childish 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     237 

things.  Play  is  for  children,  and  athletic  sports  are 
for  boys.  He  has  no  time  for  such  frivolities,  but 
buckles  down  to  work.  At  last  his  constant  applica- 
tion is  rewarded,  and  he  becomes  a  leading  lawyer, 
a  wealthy  financier,  an  eminent  physician,  or  a  fa- 
mous surgeon. 

His  brain  does  not  give  out?  Certainly  not;  for 
he  uses  that  constantly,  and  so  keeps  it  in  good  con- 
dition. But  what  about  his  arteries  and  his  heart, 
and  his  kidneys? 

He  is  now  past  middle-age,  but  he  is  successful, 
and  he  smiles.  His  heart  begins  to  bother  him,  and 
he  becomes  breathless  after  slight  exertion;  so  he 
visits  a  doctor.  A  physical  examination  shows  that 
his  arteries  have  hardened,  grown  brittle,  and  have 
lost  much  of  their  normal  elasticity;  but,  compen- 
satorily,  his  heart  has  enlarged  (hypertrophied)  to 
overcome  the  increased  resistance  of  his  now  less  yield- 
ing blood  tubes,  and  to  make  up  for  their  withdrawn 
assistance,  when  they  used  to  expand  and  contract 
with  each  cardiac  systole  (contraction)  and  diastole 
(expansion). 

Yet  he  lives  fairly  comfortable  physically,  enjoying 
his  wealth,  until  his  heart  fails  seriously,  a  blood  vessel 
bursts  in  his  head,  or  his  kidneys  become  chronically 
inflamed  and  slowly  poison  him. 

That  is  a  picture  which  has  become  far  too  com- 
mon ;  for  it  could  generally  be  easily  avoided. 

When  a  young  man,  fresh  from  his  college  foot- 
ball or  base-ball  team,  robust  and  strong,  splendidly 
nourished,  and  with  a  fine  appetite,  enters  seriously 


238      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

upon  his  business  or  profession,  he  suddenly  changes 
all  his  habits  of  life.  But  his  excellent  appetite,  ac- 
quired by  his  constant  exercise  in  the  open  air,  re- 
mains. He  eats,  therefore,  for  years,  as  well  as  he 
used  to;  but  as  he  no  longer  exercises,  his  intake  of 
food  is  now  excessive. 

As  a  consequence,  his  circulation,  missing  the  pow- 
erful stimulation  of  out-door  sports,  to  which  it  had 
become  pleasantly  accustomed,  grows  sluggish;  and 
it  is  that  sluggish  circulation,  permitting  the  gradual 
deterioration  of  his  arteries,  heart,  and  kidneys,  that 
at  last  causes  his  premature  death. 

"Athletes  die  young,"  is  an  old  saying.  But  it  is 
not  the  athletics  but  the  profound  after  indolence,  re- 
ducing, as  it  does,  the  once  active  circulation  to  slug- 
gishness, and  thus  inducing  some  one  of  the  deadly 
circulatory  diseases,  which  is  responsible,  in  the  last 
analysis,  for  the  athlete's  death. 

Better  to  convince  the  reader  that  my  contention 
that  a  sluggish  circulation  may  result  in  a  general 
vascular  degeneration,  is  no  idle  phantasm,  but  a 
cold,  demonstrable  fact,  I  present  the  following  anal- 
ogy: 

Physicians  know  that  if  a  man's  prostate  gland  be- 
comes so  hypertrophied  (enlarged) — a  common  con- 
dition in  old  men — as  to  occlude  the  neck  of  the  blad- 
der, so  that  the  man  can  no  longer  perform  the  act 
of  micturition,  but  has  always  to  withdraw  his  urine 
by  means  of  a  catheter,  that,  after  a  few  years  of 
"catheter  life,"  the  urethral  canal  becomes  hard, 
collapsed,  brittle,  and  perfectly  inelastic.  In  normal 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     239 

men,  however,  the  urethral  canal,  owing  to  its  being 
repeatedly  expanded  by  the  stream  of  urine  during 
every  ordinary  urination,  remains  soft,  pliable  and 
elastic  throughout  life. 

Now,  owing  to  their  alternate  expansions  and  con- 
tractions, corresponding  with  each  systole  and  diastole 
of  the  regularly  beating  heart,  all  the  big  and  little 
"canals,"  arterial,  venous  and  capillary,  which  con- 
stitute our  vascular  system,  should  retain  also  through- 
out life,  or,  at  least,  until  extreme  old  age,  their  nor- 
mal softness,  pliability,  resiliency  and  elasticity. 
But,  if  one,  when  middle-aged,  or  considerably  past 
middle-age,  does  not  continue  to  take,  regularly,  suffi- 
ciently active  physical  exercise,  his  circulation  will 
gradually  become  sluggish,  often  to  the  point  of  almost 
stagnation,  when  the  delicate  walls  of  his  ramifications 
of  minute  tubes,  missing  their  daily  exercise  of  alter- 
nate stretchings  and  relaxations,  will  begin  to  degen- 
erate, stiffen,  and  harden,  precisely  as  do  the  walls 
of  the  urethral  canal  when  they  are  not  expanded  nor- 
mally by  the  urinary  stream. 

Such  a  condition  is  called  by  the  learned,  arterio- 
sclerosis. But,  scientific  opinion  notwithstanding,  ar- 
teriosclerosis is  not  caused  by  alcohol,  by  tobacco,  by 
an  excess  of  proteids,  or  by  any  errors  of  diet  what- 
soever. 

A  sluggish  circulation,  gradually  induced  by  years 
of  practically  no  physical  activity,  fails  to  exercise 
properly  the  myriad  walls  of  the  extensive  tubing  ap- 
pertaining to  the  vascular  system;  and  that,  by  per- 
mitting the  deposition  of  noxious  substances,  produces 


240      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

hardening,  and  finally  the  walls '  more  or  less  complete 
degeneration  (atheroma),  or  calcification. 

We  learn  from  elementary  physiology  that  vigorous 
muscular  exercise  increases  greatly  both  the  force  and 
frequency  of  the  heart-beats,  quickens  the  circulation 
throughout  the  entire  body,  raises  blood  pressure,  and 
doubles,  trebles,  or  even  quadruples,  for  a  time,  the 
intake  of  oxygen. 

Those  effects  are  considerable,  and,  when  one  has 
accustomed  his  body  to  their  extraordinary  stimula- 
tion, it  is  impossible  to  think  that  such  stimulation 
can  be  suddenly  withdrawn  permanently  without  pro- 
found detriment  to  the  whole  circulatory  system. 

There  is  no  exception  to  the  physiological  law  that 
non-use  degenerates  structure.  So,  wh,en  we  con- 
sider how  many  men  rarely  if  ever  perform  any  kind 
of  active  muscular  work,  to  increase  the  force  and 
frequency  of  their  heart-beats,  should  we  be  astonished 
that  so  many,  and  every  year  more  than  during  the 
previous  year,  acquire  arteriosclerosis  and  heart  dis- 
ease, even  as*  early  as  middle-age? 

Not  even  the  so-called  working  classes  do  the  actual 
physical  work  that  once  they  had  to  do  in  order  to 
live.  Conductors  stand  pretty  much  all  day,  and 
ring  up  fares;  motormen  turn  a  lever  to  start,  and 
another  one  to  stop,  the  car ;  while  clerks,  book-keepers, 
bar-tenders,  waiters,  accountants,  salesmen,  floor- 
walkers, business  and  professional  men — all  lead  sed- 
entary lives;  at  all  events  their  occupations  are 
"  light. "  Even  factory  workers,  for  the  most  part, 
only  guide  and  adjust  machinery. 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     241 

When  night  comes,  the  workers,  many  of  them 
having  stood  most  of  the  day,  are  tired ;  but  they  have 
not  exercised,  in  the  sense  of  having  greatly  stim- 
ulated their  circulation.  The  strain  of  long  standing, 
of  ordinary  walking,  and  of  trifling  arm  and  lifting 
movements,  are  not  sufficiently  active  exercises  to 
maintain,  for  any  length  of  time,  the  circulatory  sys- 
tem in  vigorous  health. 

Of  course,  I  would  not  say  that,  nowadays,  no  men 
do  actual  hard  work.  Furniture  movers,  truck  driv- 
ers, iron-workers,  longshoremen,  farmers,  and  common 
laborers,  perform  really  hard  manual  labor.  But 
their  work,  besides  being  excessive,  is  not  precisely 
active,  but  slow,  heavy,  and  more  or  less  muscle- 
stiffening.  And  yet,  despite  those  drawbacks,  work- 
ers in  the  harder  vocations,  are  healthier,  and  are  less 
liable  to  circulatory  disease,  than  are  those  whose 
occupations  are  sedentary. 

Perhaps  I  had  better  say  something  more  about 
walking.  It  is  called  "the  universal  exercise";  and 
doctors  strongly  urge  their  patients  to  walk,  assuring 
them  that  it  is  "the  best  of  all  exercises. " 

I  beg  to  differ  with  the  doctors.  Walking  in  the 
open  air  is  a  great  deal  better  than  sitting  in  an  over- 
heated room;  but  walking  is  by  no  means  "the  best 
of  all  exercises/ ' 

Boxing,  wrestling,  hand-ball,  throwing  the  "med- 
icine" ball,  active  games,  running,  jumping,  rowing, 
and  swimming,  are  infinitely  better  exercises  than 
walking. 

Suppose  we  only  walked  a  horse,  could  the  horse 


242      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

run  a  good  race?  And  if  he  could  not  run  a  good 
race,  never  having  been  accustomed  to  running,  would 
he  be  a  good  horse? 

But  a  man  is  not  a  horse! — True,  but  every  man 
should  be  able  to  run  a  hundred  yards  without  drop- 
ping dead  from  heart  disease. 

Nevertheless,  walking  might  be  uthe  best  of  all  ex- 
ercises" for  certain  persons — invalids,  the  very  feeble 
and  old,  and  those  with  organic  heart  trouble, 

But  for  most  persons  walking  is  too  gentle.  The 
normal  body  needs  to  be  shocked,  stirred,  and  shaken 
from  centre  to  periphery,  to  remain  a  good  body,  free 
from  circulatory  disturbances. 

Yet,  that  arteriosclerosis,  and  its  associate,  heart 
disease,  are  due  either  to  a  faulty  diet,  or  to  the  mod- 
erate habitual  use  of  alcohol,  is  an  idea  which  is  very 
firmly  intrenched.  Only  to-day  I  came  upon  the 
following : 

* '  The  great  trouble  with  diets  is  that  we  are  apt  to 
generalize  too  much.  We  say,  '  Because  meat  is 
harmful  to  these  people,  it  is  bad  for  the  whole  human 
race/  That  is  not  true.  It  is  harmless  up  to  the 
point  where  we  become  idiosyncratic  [especially  sen- 
sitive] to  it. 

"It  seemed  to  me  in  studying  the  development  of 
arteriosclerosis  that  I  could  find  its  origin  in  a  great 
many  instances  in  acquired  food  idiosyncrasies.  Up 
to  a  certain  time  the  man's  digestion  and  metabolism 
[nutrition]  might  have  been  in  very  good  shape,  but 
at  some  time  in  his  life  he  had  a  great  nervous  strain, 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     243 

or  a  severe  illness,  like  typhoid  fever,  a  severe  surgi- 
cal operation,  a  profound  food  poisoning,  or  some  ac- 
cidental physical  knockout.  Then  the  trouble  began. 

"One  man  became  idiosyncratic  to  eggs.  As  a 
boy,  one  Easter,  he  gambled  for  t  eggs,  won  a  great 
many,  and  ate  them  all.  He  became  very  sick,  and 
after  that  eggs  made  him  sick  even  in  the  smallest 
quantity.  He  also  later  manifested  arteriosclerosis. 

"I  knew  two  men  who  were  captains  on  Long  Is- 
land Sound.  Every  night  the  steamboat  stopped  and 
took  on  oysters,  and  the  men  formed  the  habit  of 
gorging  themselves  with  oysters.  These  two  men  be- 
came idiosyncratic  to  oysters  from  the  large  quantity 
they  consumed,  and  acquired  arteriosclerosis  from 
which  they  died.  So  there  are  any  number  of  people 
in  whom  I  feel  sure  of  this  origin  of  arterio- 
sclerosis. " * 

Now  Dr.  Bishop  may  be  an  eminent  man  and  an 
experienced  physician ;  yet,  I  fear,  that  in  the  reason- 
ing I  have  just  quoted,  he  has  fallen  into  that  pitfall, 
always  in  the  pathway  of  the  scientist,  Post  hoc;  ergo, 
propter  hoc.2 

He  says  that  a  man  who  became  idiosyncratic  to 
eggs  "later  manifested  arteriosclerosis."  Also,  that 
this  patient,  as  a  boy,  had  eaten  so  many  eggs  at  one 
time  that  he  "became  very  sick,  and  after  that  eggs 
made  him  ill  even  in  the  smallest  quantity." 

1  Metabolism,  Arteriosclerosis,  and  Diet,  by  Louis  Faugeres 
Bishop,    A.M.,    M.D.     Read    before    the    Practitioners'    Club, 
Newark,  N.  J.,  November  6,  1916. 

2  After  this ;  therefore,  because  of  this. 


244      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Dr.  Bishop's  conclusion  from  those  data  is  that  the 
man's  idiosyncrasy  to  eggs,  or  the  egg  poisoning  from 
which  he  once  suffered,  or  both,  caused  his  later  mani- 
festation of  arteriosclerosis. 

But,  no  doubt,  there  are  many  persons,  who  have 
become  idiosyncratic  to  eggs,  through  having  eaten 
too  many  at  some  time,  who,  yet,  do  not,  and  perhaps 
never  will,  manifest  arteriosclerosis.  In  fact,  food 
idiosyncrasies  are  so  extremely  common,  that  few  per- 
sons do  not  possess  one  or  more  of  them.  But,  cer- 
tainly, not  every  person  with  a  food  idiosyncrasy 
afterward  acquires  arteriosclerosis. 

It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  before  placing  the 
blame  for  that  insidious  disease,  in  the  egg-eater's 
case,  it  would  be  necessary  to  know  a  great  deal  more 
about  him  than  his  painful  idiosyncrasy  to  eggs. — 
And  that  information  Dr.  Bishop  no  doubt  had,  but 
we  have  not. 

So,  we  ask:  What  were  his  age  and  weight? 
What  was  his  occupation  ?  And  what  were  his  habits  ? 

He  may  have  been  old  and  fat ;  his  occupation  may 
have  been  sedentary;  or  he  may  have  been  a  hearty 
eater  of  other  foods  than  eggs,  and  have  taken  little 
or  no  active  exercise.  Hence,  he  might  have  mani- 
fested arteriosclerosis  if  he  had  never  seen  an  egg. 

As  for  the  two  steamboat  captains  on  Long  Island 
Sound,  who  had  "  formed  the  habit  of  gorging  them- 
selves with  oysters,"  they,  no  doubt,  spent  a  great 
deal  of  their  time  in  the  open  air;  that  gave  them  a 
huge  appetite,  which  they  used  to  satisfy  with  oysters, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  they  probably  indulged  in  very 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     245 

little  active  exercise — steamboat  captains,  as  a  rule, 
making  others  work,  rather  than  themselves. 

Now,  much  nutriment  and  little  exercise  doubtless 
favor  arteriosclerosis;  so,  I  can  not  agree  with  Dr. 
Bishop  that,  if  other  steamboat  captains  wish  to  escape 
arteriosclerosis,  they  must  not  chew,  but  eschew  oys- 
ters or  excesses  of  any  other  one  kind  of  food,  lest 
they  become  idiosyncratic  to  it,  and,  later,  owing  to 
their  idiosyncrasy,  manifest  symptoms  of  arterial 
disease. 

I  would  advise  them  to  eat  less  of  everything,  and 
to  do  some  of  the  manual  work  which  others  under 
them  are  obliged  to  do. 

I,  myself,  happen  to  know  a  man  who  has  become 
idiosyncratic  to  clams.  Once,  at  a  clam-bake,  he  ate 
a  great  number  of  clams,  just  how  many  I  can  not 
remember.  He  became  very  sick,  and  now  he  can  not 
eat  even  one  clam,  without  immediately  manifesting 
distressing  symptoms.  This  man  is  forty-five  years 
old.  Incidentally,  he  drinks  to  excess;  yet,  he  is 
strong,  has  a  clear,  healthy  skin,  and  looks  ten  years 
younger  than  his  age.  As  yet,  he  has  manifested  no 
symptoms  of  arteriosclerosis ;  but  that  may  be  because 
his  occupation,  happening  to  necessitate  considerable 
physical  exertion,  overcomes  the  baleful  effects  of  his 
idiosyncrasy. 

I  have  a  colored  cook,  forty-six  years  old,  who  is 
not  arteriosclerotic,  in  so  far  as  I  know,  but  she  has 
become  idiosyncratic  to  port  wine.  She  says  that  she 
used  to  "love"  port  wine,  until,  one  evening  she 
drank  a  great  deal  too  much  of  it.  Now,  although  she 


246      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

might  look  upon  wine  when  it  was  red,  she  can  not 
bear  the  sight  of  port  wine. 

Finally,  in  his  interesting  paper,  Dr.  Bishop  says 
that  the  trouble  (arteriosclerosis)  begins  often  after  a 
man  has  sustained  some  great  nervous  shock,  such  as 
"a  severe  illness,  like  typhoid  fever,  a  severe  surgical 
operation,  a  profound  food  poisoning  [such  as  Dr. 
Bishop's  egg-man  and  oyster-men,  and  my  clam-man 
underwent],  or  some  accidental  physical  knockout." 

But,  again,  Dr.  Bishop's  reasoning  is,  Post  hoc; 
ergo,  propter  hoc,  as  a  great  many  men,  on  this  un- 
certain sphere,  sustain  some  sort  of  nervous  shock, 
usually  during  the  period  of  middle  age;  yet,  not  all, 
nor  even  a  majority,  of  them,  afterward  manifest 
arteriosclerosis. 

Consequently,  I  at  least,  can  not  see  that  Dr.  Bish- 
op's  hypothesis  is  tenable. 

Lest  I  be  misunderstood,  and  perhaps  accused  of 
deliberately  and  flippantly  placing  in  a  wrong  light 
the  learned  contention  of  Dr.  Bishop  that  some  pro- 
found food  poisoning,  resulting  in  an  idiosyncrasy  to 
that  particular  food,  is  often  a  cause  of  arteriosclerosis, 
I  would  add  that  I  am  aware  that  many  eminent  men, 
besides  Dr.  Bishop,  believe  that  arterial  disease  is  pro- 
duced by  the  entrance  into  the  circulation  of  some 
poison  derived  from  some  certain  food.  Yet,  there 
is  no  proof  that  vascular  degeneration  is  thus  caused ; 
and,  until  there  is  proof,  I  refuse  respectfully  to  ac- 
cept the  hypothesis. 

I  agree  with  Dr.  Bishop,  however,  that  certain  per- 
sons with  beginning  arteriosclerosis  may  be  hyper- 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DETERIORATION     247 

sensitive,  or  idiosyncratic,  to  certain  animal  proteins, 
without  knowing  it ;  and  that  when  those  proteins  are 
withdrawn,  such  a  person's  health  is  benefited.  But 
many  persons  overeat,  and  if  they  will  not  exercise, 
the  next  best  thing  one  can  do  for  them  is  to  reduce 
their  amount  of  food. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

HOW  TO  PREVENT   PHYSICAL.  DETERIORATION 

I  SHALL  take  up  now  the  effects  of  alcohol,  and,  inci- 
dentally, of  tobacco,  upon  my  own  organism. 

As  a  boy,  I  was  delicate  and  thin ;  but  I  was  born 
with  a  love  for  athletic  exercises,  and  that  afterward 
proved  my  salvation. 

When  a  scientist  tells  me,  among  others,  that  if  I 
do  a  certain  thing,  certain  results  will  follow;  and, 
further,  if  the  scientist  purports  to  show,  by  certain 
laboratory  experiments,  why  those  results  must  fol- 
low, that  they  are,  in  fact,  inevitable,  he  may  succeed 
in  convincing  me  that  he  is  right,  unless  I  happen  to 
know  absolutely  that,  given  the  conditions,  the  results 
actually  do  not  follow.  In  the  latter  case,  the  scien- 
tist, be  he  never  so  clever,  and  the  greatest  of  all  scien- 
tists, would,  in  my  opinion  at  least,  be  wrong. 

Now,  an  eminent  scientist,  Sir  Victor  Horsley,  tells 
us  that  "alcohol  used  daily,  "but  in  the  strictest  mod- 
eration [italics  mine] ,  deteriorates  the  cerebrum,  until 
the  man  becomes  careless  of  dress,  loses  his  affection 
for  his  family,  and  ultimately  so  subordinates  his 
habits,  desires,  and  the  welfare  of  himself  and  of  those 
connected  with  him,  that,  to  obtain  drink,  he  will  lie, 
scheme,  and  even  rob. ' ' — But  that  is  so  manifestly  un- 
true that  comment  would  be  superfluous. 

248 


HOW  TO  PREVENT  DETERIORATION     249 

Again,  we  are  told  by  another  quite  as  eminent 
scientist  that  "Alcohol,  in  moderate  quantity  [italics 
mine],  reduces  efficiency,  destroys  energy,  weakens 
thought,  paralyzes  physical  endurance,  and  lowers 
enormously  the  whole  muscular  tone." 

Now,  I  know,  not  from  hearsay,  nor  from  laboratory 
experiments,  but  of  my  own  knowledge,  that  the  above 
statements  are  worse  than  exaggerations;  they  are 
wholly  untrue. 

I  have  used  alcohol,  moderately,  but  daily,  for  the 
last  twenty-eight  years,  and  I  have  also  smoked, 
sometimes  rather  immoderately,  during  that  same  pe- 
riod of  time ;  yet,  at  my  present  age  of  forty-six  years, 
I  find  myself  in  the  most  vigorous  mental  and  physi- 
cal health  that  I  have  ever  known.  In  saying  that,  I 
am  aware  that  the  vast  majority  of  men  are  not  nearly 
so  strong  and  enduring  at  forty-six,  as  they  were  at 
twenty-six;  but  their  deterioration  is  not  owing  to 
their  age:  It  is  because  they  have  discontinued  the 
vigorous  use  of  their  physical  powers. — More  about 
that  further  on. 

And  here  it  may  be  asked  why  do  not  the  mental 
powers  of  the  intellectual  element  in  our  civilization 
wane  in  the  same  degree,  and  with  the  same  rapidity, 
as  do  their  physical  powers  ? — For,  at  sixty,  or  seventy, 
most  brain-workers  are  feeble  physically,  and  in  their 
greatest  vigor  mentally. 

The  answer  is  that  such  men  use  their  brains  stead- 
ily and  with  progressive  intensity  up  to  old  age;  and 
that  constant  vigorous  use  prevents  deterioration. 

To  go  on  with  my  personal  history.     I  am  six  feet 


250      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

and  one-half  inch  in  height,  in  my  stockinged  feet, 
and  I  weigh  about  two  hundred  pounds.  In  so  far  as 
I  can  judge,  I  possess,  with  a  great  amount  of  physi- 
cal energy,  considerable  capacity  for  sustained  mental 
work. 

Two  years  ago  I  could  push  up,  without  undue 
strain,  to  arms '  length  above  my  head,  simultaneously, 
without  jerk  or  jump,  two  dumb-bells  weighing  eighty 
pounds  each,  eight  times  in  succession;  and,  after  a 
short  rest,  I  would  then  push  up  from  the  shoulders 
to  arms'  length  above  my  head  two  dumb-bells  weigh- 
ing eighty-six  pounds  each,  four  successive  times. 
Sometimes,  but  not  often,  I  smoke  a  cigar  while  I  am 
pushing  weights. 

At  present,  I  make  it  a  practice  to  exercise  regu- 
larly, three  times  a  week,  with  two  seventy-  and  two 
eighty-pound  dumb-bells,  which  I  ''curl"  and  "put 
up"  with  ease  from  five  to  eight  times.  Afterward  I 
indulge  in  lighter  exercise  with  a  ponderous  friend, 
who  is  about  forty  years  old,  and  who,  in  spite  of 
having  drunk  alcohol  moderately  most  of  his  life,  is 
also  strong  and  healthy,  by  tossing  to  him,  and  catch- 
ing from  him,  a  twenty-two  pound  "medicine"  ball, 
continuing  that  exercise  for  about  a  half -hour.  Then 
I  do  a  few  hand-stands,  and  wind  up  my  fairly  strenu- 
ous exercise  by  punching  for  about  five  minutes  a 
heavy,  freely-swinging,  canvas  punching-bag. 

In  addition,  every  morning  before  breakfast,  I  do 
some  stretching  exercises,  touch  my  fingers  to  the 
floor  and  bend  backwards  ten  times;  I  then  do  ten 
side-bending,  and  ten  twisting  movements,  finishing 


HOW  TO  PREVENT  DETERIORATION     251 

usually  with  a  hand-stand.  I  also  do  neck  exercises 
to  keep  the  neck  muscles  firm  and  vigorous. 

Those  morning  exercises  occupy  no  more  than  five 
minutes,  and  I  find  them  excellent,  not  for  the  devel- 
opment of  strength,  but  for  keeping  the  trunk  and 
shoulder  muscles  pliant  and  elastic. 

With  me,  the  putting  up  of  heavy  weights  is  a 
hobby,  which,  however,  I  would  not  force  upon  others. 
Assuredly,  all  men  can  not  "put  up"  heavy  weights; 
nor  is  it  in  the  least  necessary  that  they  should.  But 
there  are  plenty  of  active  exercises,  which  all  can  do, 
or,  by  a  little  perseverance,  learn  to  do;  and  any 
exercise,  if  vigorous,  is  a  splendid  stimulant  for  the 
heart  and,  consequently,  for  the  entire  vascular  sys- 
tem, with  which  the  heart  is  connected. 

Running,  boxing,  wrestling,  hand-ball,  base-ball, 
tennis  and  swimming,  are  all  fine  exercises  for  the 
circulatory  apparatus. 

Yet  there  are  many,  whose  occupations  are  seden- 
tary, and  for  whom  any  of  the  above  exercises  would 
be  too  violent.  For  those,  permit  me  to  recommend 
an  universal  exercise,  which  can  be  engaged  in  safely 
by  the  young,  middle-aged,  or  old,  of  either  sex,  and 
which  will  occupy  far  less  time,  do  a  great  deal  more 
good,  and  be  much  more  enjoyable,  than  would  be  long 
monotonous  walks — the  exercise  is  "playing  with  the 
medicine  ball." 

The  medicine  ball  can  be  made  to  order  by  any 
upholsterer,  or  it  may  be  obtained  at  any  sporting- 
goods'  house.  The  ball  is  covered  with  stout  canvas, 
or  leather,  strongly  sewed,  and  is  filled  with  a  mix- 


252      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

ture  of  shavings,  or  sawdust  and  sand.     Its  great  ad- 
vantage is  that  it  can  be  made  any  desired  weight. 

A  ball  suitable  for  women  and  children  should 
weigh  from  five  to  ten  pounds ;  and  ten  pounds  would 
be  heavy  enough  for  some  men.  Others  could  use  with 
greater  advantage,  balls  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
pounds. 

Ten  minutes  of  vigorous  play,  daily,  with  a  ball 
of  the  proper  size,  tossing  it  from  one  to  the  other, 
or  to  others,  if  more  than  two  are  playing,  will  put 
the  players  into  a  profuse  perspiration,  will  increase 
and  strengthen  their  heart  action,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  much  quicken  their  respiration  and  general  cir- 
culation. Should  the  players  wish  open-air  exercise, 
they  may  throw  the  ball  in  the  privacy  of  their  back 
yards,  donning  sweaters  and  gloves  in  cold  weather; 
or  they  may  toss  the  ball  on  the  beaches,  in  summer, 
as  some  now  do. 

The  ordinary  way  of  hurling  the  ball  is  to  allow  it 
to  rest  on  the  upturned  palm,  the  arm  being  bent,  and 
held  close  in  to  the  shoulder.  From  that  position  it 
is  thrown  to  the  other  player  by  thrusting  the  arm 
out,  springing  slightly  from  the  knees,  and  "follow- 
ing" with  the  body,  as  one  does  when  " putting"  the 
shot. 

But,  after  throwing  with  the  right  arm,  the  next 
throw  must  be  made  similarly  with  the  left  arm,  to 
insure  bilateral  development. 

Another  " throw,"  excellent  for  the  abdominal  mus- 
cles, and  hence  a  corrective  of  constipation,  is  executed 
by  hurling  the  ball  with  both  hands  from  over  and  a 


HOW  TO  PREVENT  DETERIORATION     253 

little  behind  the  head.  Still  other  throws  will  sug- 
gest themselves  to  the  players. 

Physicians  frequently  urge  certain  of  their  patients 
to  walk  five  or  ten  miles  every  day.  But  such  long 
walks,  besides  consuming  much  time,  soon  become  so 
monotonous  and  tiresome  that  few  will  repeat  them 
for  more  than  a  few  days, — and  who  can  blame  them  ? 

Why  should  not  physicians  recommend,  instead,  a 
few  minutes'  vigorous  play  with  the  medicine  ball, 
especially  since  that  exercise  can  be  precisely  regu- 
lated, is  general,  employing  muscles  ordinarily  little 
used,  and  so  gets  better  results  within  a  much  shorter 
time  than  would  walking? 

Throwing  the  medicine  ball  exercises  vigorously  all 
the  muscles  in  the  body,  including  even  those  of  the 
neck ;  and  such  a  general  exercise  is,  of  course,  of  more 
benefit  to  the  general  circulation  than  would  be  any 
local  exercise. 

I  firmly  believe,  therefore,  that,  if  the  vast  army  of 
sedentarians  who  at  present  constitute  a  large  ma- 
jority of  our  population,  would  indulge  in  that  pleas- 
ant play  exercise,  for  only  five  minutes  every  day, 
deaths  from  premature  hardening  of  the  arteries 
(arteriosclerosis)  and  its  concomitant,  heart  disease, 
would  soon  become  as  rare  as  they  are  now  common. 

"Few  men,"  remarks  Dr.  Henry  G.  Bugbee, 
' '  reach  middle  life  retaining  physical  vigor. ' '  If  that 
is  so,  most  men  should  be  ashamed ;  for,  to  retain  the 
physical  vigor  possessed  in  youth,  it  is  necessary 
merely  to  continue  to  employ  that  vigor,  at  least  occa- 
sionally, by  suitable  exercises;  or,  if  there  be  little 


254      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

original  vigor,  to  set  determinedly  about  cultivating 
it.  I  have  seen  many  men  who  had  very  little  vigor 
to  start  with,  acquire  a  great  deal  of  it,  by  judiciously 
progressive  exercises. 

Before  resuming  the  narration  of  my  own  experi- 
ences, I  would  explain  that  no  weak  vanity  or  idle  de- 
sire to  boast  has  prompted  me  to  detail  what  I  myself 
have  done,  and  still  do  (at  the  age  of  forty-six  years), 
athletically.  That  I  have  done  solely  in  the  cause  of 
truth,  and,  particularly,  to  refute,  not  by  theories,  or 
hypotheses,  but  by  absolute  counterfacts  such  "scien- 
tific" statements  as:  "Alcohol,  in  moderate  quan- 
tity, reduces  efficiency,  destroys  energy,  weakens 
thought,  paralyzes  physical  endurance,  and  lowers 
enormously  the  whole  muscular  tone." 

Now,  if  alcohol  really  produces  all  those  deleterious 
effects,  why  did  it  not  produce  them  in  my  case  ? 

Let  us  reason.  If  alcohol  plus  exercise  produce 
great  physical  vigor,  as  I  have  just  incontestably 
shown  in  my  own  case  that  they  do;  and  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  alcohol  plus  no  active  exercise  "destroy 
energy,  weaken  thought,  paralyze  physical  endurance, 
and  lower  enormously  the  whole  muscular  tone,"  as 
the  Prohibitionists  assert  that  they  do,  since  they 
have  not  considered  exercise  as  a  factor  at  all; 
then,  the  lack  of  active  exercise,  and  not  the  alcohol, 
must  be  responsible  for  these  latter  bad  effects,  par- 
ticularly as  we  absolutely  know  that  many  men  who 
take  no  active  exercise,  and  who  use  no  alcohol,  are, 
nevertheless,  weak,  lack  energy  and  endurance,  and 
have  generally  a  considerably  lowered  muscular  tone. 


HOW  TO  PEEVENT  DETERIORATION     255 

I  repeat  that  I  have  drunk  ale  moderately  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  consuming  daily  from  four  to  eight 
glasses.  I  have  also,  during  that  time,  been  a  con- 
stant smoker  of  strong  cigars.  Yet,  despite  those 
"dissipations,"  I  do  not  lack  energy,  but  am  strong 
and  vigorous;  neither  have  I  had  rheumatism,  gout, 
heart  disease,  or  other  circulatory  disturbances.  My 
immunity  I  ascribe  not  to  the  ale,  but  to  the  fact  that 
I  have  regularly  taken  vigorous  physical  exercise. 

But,  were  my  heart  weakened,  my  general  muscular 
tone  lowered  1 1  enormously, ' '  and  my  nerves  shaken  by 
my  steady  smoking,  and  my  regular  moderate  drink- 
ing, would  I  be  in  my  present  healthy  and  vigorous 
condition?  Certainly  I  would  not. 

If  the  objection  be  raised  that  I,  possibly,  am  an 
exception,  or  that  I  happen  to  be  peculiarly  insus- 
ceptible to  the  ordinary  effects  of  alcohol  and  of  to- 
bacco, I  would  answer  that  such  objection  is  illogical ; 
for,  I,  being  human,  would  be  vulnerable,  with  other 
humans,  to  any  cumulative  poison.  The  only  expla- 
nation remaining,  therefore,  is  that  alcohol  is  not  the 
cumulative  and  degenerative  poison  which  some  scien- 
tists claim  it  is. 

Prohibitionists  there  are,  who  assume  a  high  men- 
tal and  physical  superiority  over  those  who  drink  the 
lighter  alcoholic  beverages.  But  Prohibitionists  and 
ingeniously  contrived  experiments  notwithstanding, 
there  are  men  whose  red  blood  has  been  neither  poi- 
soned nor  in  the  least  deteriorated  by  moderate  daily 
increments  of  alcohol  covering  a  long  period  of 
years. 


256      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

My  father,  Dr.  Austin  Flint,  was  a  moderate 
drinker.  For  as  long  as  I  can  remember,  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  drinking  the  heavier  imported  beers, 
regularly  and  moderately  every  night.  But  he,  like 
myself,  never  drank  liquor,  and  he  never  drank  during 
the  day.  He  died  suddenly  in  his  eightieth  year. 
When  younger,  he  was  fond  of  gymnastics,  and  exer- 
cised regularly;  and  I  believe  now  that  if  he  had  not 
wholly  given  up  his  exercises,  when  he  became  old, 
he  would  be  alive  to-day. 

Another  point.  There  are  certain  would-be  regen- 
erators of  degenerate  mankind  who  aver  that  moder- 
ate drinking,  regularly  indulged  in  for  a  considerable 
time,  leads  to  immoderate  drinking.  That,  experience 
does  not  show,  as  there  are  many  more  moderate,  than 
immoderate  drinkers ;  and  the  moderate  drinker,  being 
as  a  rule  normal,  rarely  becomes  a  heavy  drinker. 
In  my  own  case,  I  can  say  that  I  drink  now  less  than 
formerly. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  physicians,  with  all  their 
scientific  knowledge  and  thorough  understanding  of 
hygiene  and  sanitation,  are  shorter  lived,  as  a  class, 
than  are  the  average  of  the  general  population. 

According  to  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  2196  physicians,  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  died  during  the  year  1916.  If  that  num- 
ber include  all  the  deaths  of  physicians — hardly  a  jus- 
tifiable assumption — their  annual  death  rate,  estimat- 
ing the  total  number  of  physicians  as  158,000,  would 
be  14.08  per  thousand.  The  general  death  rate  for 
Greater  New  York,  for  the  year  1916,  was  13.89  per 


HOW  TO  PREVENT  DETERIORATION     257 

1000  of  estimated  population.  For  the  year  1915  it 
was  13.93. 

The  chief  causes  of  death,  for  that  year,  among 
physicians,  were,  in  the  order  named,  senility,  heart 
disease,  pneumonia,  cerebral  hemorrhage,  accident, 
surgical  operations,  and  nephritis.  The  average  age 
at  death  was  59  years,  11  months,  and  5  days. 

Further,  we  learn  that  337  of  the  deaths  were  from 
senility;  324  from  diseases  of  the  circulatory  system; 
261  from  diseases  of  the  nervous  system;  231  from 
respiratory  troubles;  225  from  general  diseases;  129 
from  digestive  disorders ;  105  from  genito-urinary  dis- 
eases; 112  from  accidents;  98  from  surgical  oper- 
ations ;  39  from  suicide ;  and  15  from  homicide. 

Although  comment  is  hardly  necessary,  I  would 
remark  that,  judging  from  the  prevalence  of  the  cir- 
culatory diseases  among  physicians,  they,  fully  as 
much  as  others  in  the  community,  require  considerably 
more  active  physical  exercise. 

It  may  well  be  that,  after  all,  the  proletariat  know 
something  about  the  care  of  their  health.  Personally, 
and  I  am  only  one  among  many  millions,  I  should  hate 
to  have  anyone,  be  he  savant  or  physician,  direct  my 
private  habits;  inasmuch  as,  though  not  a  physician, 
I  have  succeeded  in  developing  a  strong  and  enduring 
physique  from  an  originally  weak  and  delicate  one; 
and  that  I  have  done  simply  by  means  of  a  sufficiently 
plentiful  plain  diet,  made  appetizing  by  a  little  good 
ale  and  regular  active  exercise.  In  the  sweat  of  my 
body  I  have  earned  my  good  dinners — and  enjoyed 
them. 


258      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

I  have  had  advice — lots  of  it;  but  I  followed  my 
own  ideas.  Scores  of  physicians  advised  me,  when  I 
was  young,  that  violent  exercise  was  harmful,  and 
that,  if  I  persisted  in  using  heavy  weights,  I  would 
become  old  before  my  time.  Yet,  fortunately  for 
my  health,  strength  and  well-being,  there  was  no  law 
to  stop  me  from  exercising  as  I  pleased ;  and,  so,  I  per- 
sisted. 

At  present  my  heart  is  as  sound  as  a  United  States 
bond,  and,  although  I  weigh  nearly  two  hundred 
pounds,  I  can  run  rapidly  up  three  ordinary  flights 
of  stairs,  two  steps  at  a  time,  without  the  least  breath- 
lessness,  and  with  little  acceleration  of  my  heart 
action. 

But,  lest  it  be  thought  I  imagine  my  heart  to  be 
stronger  than  it  really  is,  I  shall  be  explicit. 

It  is  9.20  P.M.  At  7.30  P.M.  I  finished  a  fairly 
hearty  meal  consisting  of  two  fried  eggs,  four  slices 
of  bacon,  two  potato  cakes,  six  slices  of  rye  bread 
and  butter,  two  pieces  of  cake,  two  large  glasses  of 
cream  ale,  a  large  cup  of  coffee,  and  one  glass  of 
water.  Since  the  meal  I  have  been  writing,  and,  while 
writing,  I  have  smoked  two  strong  Havana  cigars. 
After  weighing  myself  on  a  Jones'  scale,  and,  find- 
ing that  I  tipped  the  beam  at  197  pounds,  I  took  my 
pulse  rate  and  found  that  it  beat  73  times  to  the  min- 
ute. I  then  walked  down  stairs  to  the  basement, 
turned  and  ran  rapidly  up  three  flights  of  stairs,  two 
steps  at  a  time.  At  the  top  of  the  third  flight  I  im- 
mediately took  my  pulse  rate.  It  was  105  beats  to 
the  first  minute ;  the  second  minute  it  was  83 ;  and  the 


HOW  TO  PREVENT  DETERIORATION     259 

third  minute,  80.  At  no  time  was  I  in  the  least 
breathless. 

The  next  day  I  repeated  the  experiment,  but  at  a 
different  time.  At  half -past  six  o'clock  in  the  eve- 
ning, just  before  dinner,  I  carefully  noted  my  pulse 
rate.  It  was  64  to  the  minute.  I  then  ran  as  rapidly 
as  I  could  up  the  same  three  flights  of  stairs,  taking 
two  steps  at  a  time.  My  pulse,  directly  after  I  had 
reached  the  top  of  the  third  flight,  beat  95  times  to 
the  first  minute;  the  second  minute  it  was  67;  the 
third  minute,  62  (normal)  ;  and  the  fourth  minute, 
63. — A  better  result  than  I  obtained  in  the  first  ex- 
periment, obviously,  because  I  had  not  had  a  hearty 
meal. 

I  think  that  any  physician  will  agree  with  me  that 
the  above  experiments  showed  my  heart  to  be  sound 
and  fairly  strong.  So,  if,  according  to  Dr.  Bugbee, 
"few  men  reach  middle-age  retaining  physical  vigor, " 
it  is  their  own  fault,  rather  than  the  fault  of  their 
forty  or  fifty  years,  of  alcohol,  or  of  wholesome  food. 

My  reasons  for  having  described  with  such  minute- 
ness the  effect  of  sudden  violent  exercise  upon  my  own 
circulation,  and,  especially,  upon  my  own  heart,  are 
two.  First,  to  show  how  much  too  prone  are  some 
persons  to  ascribe  effects  to  causes  which  have  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  such  effects;  and,^ sec- 
ond, to  demonstrate,  by  at  least  one  concrete  instance, 
the  absurdity  of  making  alcohol,  even  when  moder- 
ately used,  wholly  responsible  for  the  increasing  inci- 
dence of  heart  disease. 

If  those  pursuing  sedentary  occupations  were  not 


260      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

too  indolent  to  do  some  kind  of  vigorous  physical  work 
occasionally — even  though  they  should  indulge  in  the 
light  alcoholic  drinks  at  luncheon  and  dinner — they 
would  not  have  flabby  muscles  and  weak  hearts ;  they 
would  not  suffer  from  breathlessness  upon  slight  exer- 
tion ;  and  they  would  not  feel  chronically  tired,  nerv- 
ous and  dejected. 

Health  and  strength  have  one  price — physical  exer- 
tion. That  price  the  upper  classes  will  not  pay,  be- 
cause they  fondly  imagine  it  is  not  necessary.  In- 
stead, they  seek  as  diligently  as  did  Ponce-de-Leon 
and  the  alchemists  of  old,  for  the  Fountain  of  Youth, 
or  the  Elixir  of  Life;  but  call  their  identical  goal, 
''The  Science  of  Right  Living." 

Diet  is  the  modern  mania.  A  precisely  balanced 
dietary,  the  ideally  perfect  food,  is  what  all  scientists 
are  looking  for,  not  realizing  that  should  they  find 
this  ignis  fatuus,  it  would  be  as  useless  for  purposes 
of  ordinary  life  as  a  thimbleful  of  water  would  be  to 
quench  thirst. 

So  intricately  is  the  human  organism  constructed 
that  from  a  variety  it  picks  just  the  right  quantities 
of  this  and  that  substance  needed  for  its  health  as  a 
whole,  and  rejects  the  rest.  But,  suppose  the  stomach 
were  given  some  "scientific"  food,  containing  the 
exact  amounts  of  all  the  various  substances  required 
by  the  body,  and  no  more,  what  would  happen? 

The  stomach,  the  thirty  odd  feet  of  intestines,  the 
kidneys,  liver,  etc.,  having  no  material  (waste  prod- 
ucts) to  work  upon,  would  have  their  normal  func- 


HOW  TO  PREVENT  DETERIORATION     261 

tionings  so  reduced,  that  they  would  soon  atrophy 
(waste)  and  become  hopelessly  diseased. 

While  Metchnikoff  was  seeking  scientific  ways  to 
destroy  the  bacteria  which  infest  the  intestinal  coils, 
and  which,  he  believed,  caused  senility,  his  heart, 
which  he  did  not  bother  about,  suddenly  ceased  func- 
tioning, and  the  great  Metchnikoff  died. 

While  Hugo  Muensterberg  was  delivering  a  lecture 
on  psychology  in  a  class-room  in  Harvard  University, 
he  clutched  at  his  heart,  collapsed,  and  died  before 
the  eyes  of  his  students. 

The  price  of  life  is  toil;  but  physical  as  well  as 
mental  toil.  However  much  a  man  works  with  his 
brain,  if  he  does  not  work  also  with  his  body,  the 
brain's  tenement,  the  body  will  corrode  and  rust,  and 
at  last  clog  the  brain. 

The  brain  not  only  thinks  and  schemes;  it  is  the 
storage  battery  supplying  the  succession  of  nervous 
shocks  necessary  for  the  continued  functioning  of  the 
body.  The  fly-wheel  of  the  human  machinery  is  the 
heart;  the  arteries,  arterioles,  veins,  and  capillaries, 
are  the  belts  connecting  the  fly-wheel  with  the  special 
nervous  mechanisms  of  the  vital  functions  and  with 
those  employed  in  pedal  and  manual  dexterities. 
Once  the  fly-wheel  (heart)  stops,  all  the  movements 
derived  from  it  cease;  nor  can  it  be  set  in  motion 
again,  seeing  that  the  storage  battery  (brain)  died 
with  its  last  revolution. 

Now  to  keep  that  powerful  fly-wheel  and  all  the  in- 
tricate machinery  with  which  it  is  connected,  running 


262      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

smoothly,  it  is  necessary:  First,  that  the  machine 
(body)  be  supplied  regularly  with  its  proper  fuel; 
and,  second,  to  keep  it  bright,  clean  and  well  lubri- 
cated, it  must  be  rid  regularly  of  all  ashes  (waste 
products)  and  clinkers. 

To  do  that,  the  whole  machine  must  be  speeded  up, 
raked,  and  vigorously  shaken  down,  by  some  active 
and  general  physical  exercise;  and,  at  stated  inter- 
vals, it  must  be  allowed  to  rest. 

With  every  contraction  of  the  heart,  blood  is 
forced  through  the  arteries  to  all  parts  of  the  body; 
thence  returning  to  the  heart  via  the  veins.  Also,  the 
veins  and  arteries,  when  normal,  do  their  share  of  the 
circulatory  work,  by  expanding  and  contracting  their 
elastic  walls  with  each  systole  and  diastole  of  the 
great  muscular  pump. 

Now,  as  I  have  said,  in  those  who  neglect  active 
exercise,  the  blood  circulates  sluggishly,  particularly 
after  middle  life;  and,  consequently,  in  such,  vascu- 
lar expansions  and  contractions  are  lessened,  until, 
after  a  time,  the  walls  of  their  myriad  tubes,  through 
disuse,  lose,  in  great  measure,  their  proper  elasticity, 
and  become  brittle  and  hard.  Then  the  heart,  unable 
longer  to  depend  upon  its  former  allies'  valuable  aid, 
has  to  work  harder  and  at  a  disadvantage ;  so  that,  at 
last,  it,  too,  becomes  deranged,  and  hypertrophies  or 
dilates. 

I  repeat,  therefore,  that  if  one  regularly  exercises, 
not  by  walking — which  some  doctors  assure  everybody 
is  "the  best  exercise,"  but  which  I  assure  my  readers 
is  wofully  insufficient, — but  by  playing  active  games, 


HOW  TO  PEEVENT  DETERIORATION     263 

boxing,  or,  best  of  all,  for  the  reasons  I  have  given  at 
length,  by  throwing  and  catching  the  "medicine" 
ball, — then  the  heart  and  its  extensive  circulatory 
ramifications,  being  alternately  and  normally  ex- 
panded and  contracted,  will  be  adequately  exercised, 
and  hence,  will  not  nearly  so  soon  lose  their  proper 
pliability  and  elasticity. 

Movement  is  LIFE;  and  stagnation  is  death. 

And  so,  it  would  seem  that  not  moderate  indulgence 
in  alcohol,  nor  smoking,  nor  overeating,  nor  all  three, 
are  causes  of  the  physical  deterioration  manifested  by 
the  constant  increase  in  the  circulatory  diseases;  it  is 
the  result  of  an  ever-widening  physical  indolence  in- 
duced by  too  much  prosperity. 

The  discovery  that  overeating  and  overindulgence 
in  alcohol  produce  disease  in  the  physically  inert,  is 
no  doubt  a  true  discovery;  particularly  as  we  know 
that  even  an  idle  horse  will  become  diseased  if  we 
do  not  reduce  his  feed. 

For  the  increase  in  the  circulatory  diseases,  then, 
there  remain  two  remedies.  Either  we  may  eat  and 
drink  less  and  grow  healthier,  without,  at  the  same 
time,  physically  exerting  ourselves;  or  we  may  exer- 
cise actively  and  regularly  for  a  few  minutes  every 
day,  and  still  enjoy  the  good  things  of  life.  For  my 
part,  I  prefer  to  work  and  eat;  but  he  may  not  eat, 
who  will  not  work. 

The  pure  physical  joy  derived  from  the  conscious- 
ness of  strength  is  indescribable.  This  morning  I  put 
up  from  the  shoulder  to  straight  arm  above  the  shoul- 
ders, two  eighty-pound  dumb-bells,  four  successive 


264      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

times.  I  did  it  with  ease,  feeling  that  I  could  have 
put  them  up  six  times  had  I  wished.  After  I  had 
replaced  them  on  the  floor,  my  whole  frame  tingled 
with  a  feeling  of  force  that  one  must  experience  to 
know  its  pure  satisfaction.  And  I  thought:  "It  is 
worth  while;  strength  is  worth  working  for." 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

A  PRACTICAL  PREVENTIVE  OF  APOPLEXY 

BEFORE  concluding  this  book  I  must  add  a  word 
about  apoplexy.  I  am  aware  that  the  learned,  in  dis- 
cussing this  extremely  common  disease,  which  they 
call  cerebral  hemorrhage,  lay  its  prevalence  to  errors 
in  diet,  mental  overwork,  and  even  to  worry  and 
anxiety.  All  that  may  be  true,  and,  yet,  I,  not  being 
learned,  doubt  that  any  one  of  the  conditions  men- 
tioned could  be  more  than  a  very  remote  cause. 

The  direct  cause  of  apoplexy  is,  of  course,  a  weak- 
ness of  some  part  of  the  wall  of  some  blood  vessel  in 
the  brain.  That  weak  spot,  owing  to  a  sudden  in- 
crease of  blood  pressure,  or  to  some  obstruction  or 
clot  (thrombus)  forming  somewhere  in  the  cerebral 
circulation,  gives  way,  and  the  apoplectic  stroke  fol- 
lows, with  either  a  fatal  result,  or  a  more  or  less  ex- 
tensive paralysis. 

Apoplexy  is  a  circulatory  disease,  and  is,  therefore, 
caused,  in  my  unlearned  opinion,  more  by  prolonged 
physical  inactiveness,  than  by  anything  else. 

The  definition  of  "thrombus,"  in  Gould's  Medical 
Dictionary,  is:  "A  clot  of  blood  formed  within  the 
heart  or  blood-vessels,  due  usually  to  a  slowing  of  the 
circulation  or  to  alteration  'of  the  Hood  or  vessel 
walls."  [Italics  mine.] 

265 


266      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

Now,  given  a  weakness  in  the  wall  of  some  cerebral 
blood  vessel,  and  a  thrombus  forming  near  it  will 
almost  inevitably  precipitate  an  apoplectic  seizure 
(bursting  of  the  blood  vessel). 

That  fact  every  physician  knows.  Why,  then, 
knowing  the  fact,  does  he  not  think  that  chronic  physi- 
cal inactivity,  inducing,  as  it  does,  "a  slowing  of  the 
circulation,"  may  be  more  of  a  factor  in  apoplexy 
than  "errors  of  diet,  mental  overwork,  or  worry  and 
anxiety  ? "  Is  it  because  he  is  too  learned  to  think  of 
anything  so  simple  ?  I  can  say  that  in  all  the  ( '  scien- 
tific" papers  I  have  read  on  apoplexy,  none  makes 
allusion  to  a  lack  of  exercise  as  being  even  a  contribu- 
tory cause. 

There  is  an  excellent  preventive  of  apoplexy  that 
is  so  simple  that  possibly  only  one  unlearned  would 
think  of  it. 

All  tree-growers  know  that  when  a  tree  is  planted 
in  an  unsheltered  spot,  the  limbs  on  the  side  of  the 
tree  facing  the  prevailing  winds  will  grow  stronger 
and  thicker  than  will  the  limbs  on  the  sheltered  side 
of  the  tree.  That  is  because  the  branches  on  the  more 
exposed  side  are  blown  about  and  bent  more  by  the 
strong  winds  than  are  the  other  branches.  As  a 
consequence,  the  tossed  and  twisted  branches  get  more 
than  their  share  of  the  tree  sap,  and,  hence,  being 
extraordinarily  well-nourished,  become  especially 
strong  and  resisting. 

In  the  same  way  the  branches  of  the  arteries  and 
the  veins,  as  well  as  the  arteries  and  veins  themselves, 
become  stronger  and  more  resisting,  the  more  strongly 


A  PREVENTIVE  OF  APOPLEXY        267 

their  walls  are  expanded  and  stretched  by  the  volume 
of  blood  flowing  between  them.  But  nothing  so  pow- 
erfully stimulates  the  circulation  as  does  exercise; 
hence,  exercise  must  best  strengthen  the  walls  of  all 
the  blood  vessels  in  the  body. 

Unfortunately  for  the  blood  vessels  in  the  head, 
however,  the  upright  position,  which  all  human  be- 
ings assume  for  about  two-thirds  of  their  lives,  mili- 
tates against  those  particular  blood  vessels '  being  sub- 
jected to  nearly  so  much  pressure  as  all  the  other 
blood  vessels  are  constantly  subjected  to ;  and,  conse- 
quently, the  cerebral  blood  vessels,  being  weakest,  are 
the  first  to  snap,  when  old  age,  or  prolonged  inactiv- 
ity, has  caused  a  general  weakening  of  the  vascular 
system. 

Apoplexy  is,  therefore,  common  among  civilized 
peoples,  but  rare  in  the  young,  who  are  usually  ha- 
bitually active.1 

Now,  can  we  do  anything  to  prevent  apoplexy?  I 
think  we  can.  "Hand-stands"  are  an  excellent  pre- 
ventive; for,  then,  the  blood,  rushing  into  the  head, 
distends  the  cerebral  vessels,  and  thus  strengthens 
them.  But  few,  of  the  general  population,  can  stand 
on  their  hands,  or  on  their  heads;  but  anyone  can 
stand  upon  his  feet,  and,  bending  over,  hang  his  head 
down,  the  while  holding  a  deep  inspiration,  and,  in 
that  simple  manner,  he  can  force  sufficient  blood  into 

i  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  a  lack  of  exercise 
is  the  sole  cause  of  apoplexy,  or  of  heart  disease;  for  many 
diseases,  notably  syphilis  and  rheumatic  fever,  cause  often  pro- 
found vascular  degenerations.  But  I  do  say  that  vigorous 
bodily  exercise  renders  one  much  less  liable  to  either. 


268      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

his  head  to  distend  and  stretch  its  blood  vessels. 
That  simple  procedure,  repeated  once  or  twice  daily, 
and  carefully  executed  so  as  not  to  increase  cerebral 
blood  pressure  too  strongly,  should  keep  the  vessels  of 
the  vertex  healthy,  elastic  and  resisting,  and,  hence, 
should  prevent  apoplexy. 

Of  course,  anyone  could  think  of  the  above,  while 
only  the  learned  could  discourse  cryptically  about  the 
sphygmomanometrical  readings  of  high  blood  pres- 
sure, inadequate  protein  metabolism,  toxaemia,  ar- 
teriosclerosis, and  atheroma. 

Nevertheless,  when  logically  considered,  my  advice 
may  seem  sound  to  those  who  may  remember  that 
"E'en  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings 
cometh  forth  wisdom. " 


ADDENDUM 

ALCOHOL,   ECONOMICALLY  AND   PRACTICALLY 
CONSIDERED 

ON  April  2d,  1917,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of 
the  United  States,  issued  a  proclamation  that  a  state 
of  war  existed  between  this  country  and  Germany. 
We  have,  therefore,  entered  into  the  world  conflict. 

As  a  consequence,  Prohibitionists  are  renewing 
their  agitation  against  alcohol,  and  are  adding  to  their 
alcohol-lessening-of-efficiency  arguments  the  more 
specious  plea  that  now,  in  the  present  world  crisis, 
the  national  prohibition  of  alcohol  should  be  enacted 
to  prevent  the  ' '  enormous  waste ' '  of  grain  stuffs  inci- 
dental to  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages. 

But  their  statements  in  this  regard,  as  in  other  re- 
gards, are  exaggerated,  as  there  is  by  no  means  so 
great  a  waste  of  the  grain  used  in  the  making  of  bev- 
erages containing  alcohol  as  they  aver  that  there  is. 

According  to  the  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Internal  Revenue,  39,748,892  bushels  of  all  kinds  of 
grain  were  used  in  the  production  of  distilled  liquors, 
during  the  fiscal  year,  1916;  while  the  brewers'  sta- 
tistics, for  the  same  year,  showed  that  a  little  under 
55,000,000  bushels  of  grain  had  been  utilized  to  make 
fermented  liquors :  The  sum  of  the  two  totals  amount- 
ing to  something  less  than  95,000,000  bushels  of  grain 

269 


270      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

used  for  the  entire  alcoholic-drink  industry. — And 
that  grand  total  is  about  530,000,000  bushels  less  than 
the  amount  claimed  by  the  College  of  Agriculture ! 

Moreover,  the  liquor  men  declare  that,  after  the 
carbohydrates  have  been  extracted  from  the  corn,  bar- 
ley, etc.,  there  remains  65  per  cent,  of  the  food  value 
of  the  grain,  which  is  dried  and  used  as  a  valued 
cattle  food,  and  that,  therefore,  65  per  cent,  should  be 
subtracted  from  the  95,000,000  bushels,  leaving  only 
35,000,000  bushels  as  the  amount  of  grain  devoted 
solely  to  the  production  of  alcoholic  drinks. 

The  United  States  government  figures  show  that 
during  the  year  1916,  all  the  brewers  in  this  country 
used  no  wheat,  no  oats,  and  no  rye ;  but  chiefly  barley, 
some  corn  products,  and  a  little  rice. 

Now  barley  is  seldom  used  for  human  consumption, 
but  is  a  valuable  nutrient  for  cattle,  especially  after 
it  has  been  crushed  in  the  making  of  beer.  Sorensen, 
a  great  Danish  authority  on  pure  food,  has  gone  so 
far  as  to  declare  that  there  is  no  waste  of  cereals  in 
brewing  beer. — At  all  events,  the  total  number  of 
bushels  of  grains  actually  consumed  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  beer  is  less  than  %  per  cent,  of  the  grain  pro- 
duction of  our  country. 

I  give  the  above  figures  that  the  American  people 
may  consider  the  universal  prohibition  proposition  in 
the  light  of  the  whole  truth,  rather  than  through  the 
blue  glasses  of  recklessly  ' '  made ' '  figures  and  compre- 
hensive misstatements. 

Again,  real  estate  men  assert  that  extreme  prohibi- 
tion measures  would  affect  at  least  900,000,000  dollars' 


ECONOMICALLY  CONSIDERED         271 

worth  of  taxable  hotel  and  restaurant  property,  and 
would  throw  real  estate  valued  at  a  quarter  of  a  bil- 
lion dollars  upon  the  for  sale  and  to  rent  market. 

Indeed,  were  there  universal  prohibition,  the  grave 
financial  loss  to  this  country  of  the  millions  of  dol- 
lars of  revenue  derived  yearly  from  the  liquor  traffic, 
should  be  obvious,  to  say  nothing  of  the  calamitous 
consequences  of  throwing  thousands  of  men  out  of 
employment  in  these  trying  times.  Then,  too,  the 
Federal  Government  would  be  obliged,  for  justice' 
sake,  to  indemnify  all  who  had  invested  multi-millions 
of  dollars  in  what  has  always  been  a  legitimate  indus- 
try. 

It  is  significant  of  the  general  need  of  alcoholic  bev- 
erages that,  while  many  of  the  warring  nations  of 
Europe  have  become  pinched  for  food,  not  one  has 
forbidden  the  manufacture  of  such  beverages.  True, 
Russia  has  abolished  vodka,  and  France  has  sup- 
pressed absinthe,  but  no  nation  has  forbidden  the 
moderate  use  of  the  milder  alcoholic  drinks,  nor  even 
of  wine,  whiskey  and  brandy. 

Why,  then,  of  all  nations,  should  the  United  States, 
which  is  not  now  suffering,  and  which  probably  never 
will  suffer,  from  the  acute  food  shortage  at  present 
gripping  most  of  Europe,  enact  National  Prohibition 
as  a  measure  either  of  health  or  of  economy? 

It  is  when  peoples  are  racked,  worn,  pinched,  and 
harassed  by  war  that  they  especially  need  alcohol ; 
and  it  is  just  then  that  they  would  not  endure  being 
deprived  of  it. 

Another  question  which  the  war  has  quickened  for 


272      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

judicial  decision  is,  whether  it  would  or  would  not  be 
advisable  to  allow  alcohol  in  the  army.  It  would,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  be  a  fatal  mistake  absolutely  to  forbid 
alcohol  to  the  soldier. 

If  it  has  been  found  that  alcohol  does  not  increase 
the  soldier's  efficiency  when  he  is  about  to  fight,  it 
has  not  been  found  that  alcohol  has  harmed  him  after 
the  fight,  when  he  is  in  a  condition  of  partial  exhaus- 
tion. On  the  contrary,  the  experience  abroad  has 
been — and  experience  is  the  best  teacher — that  alco- 
hol is  invaluable,  often  indispensable,  to  the  soldier, 
when  properly  used  at  the  right  time;  at  all  events, 
certain  amounts  of  alcohol  are  allowed  regularly  to 
all  the  soldiers  in  Europe  in  active  service. 

War  time  is  not  the  ideal  time  for  experiments; 
and  suddenly,  at  such  a  crucial  epoch  as  the  present, 
to  withhold  all  alcoholic  stimulants  from  human  or- 
ganisms, which  from  time  immemorial  have  been  ac- 
customed to  them,  might  result  in  more  than  discom- 
fort— it  might  be  terribly  disastrous. 

All  remember  that  the  abolishment  of  the  army  can- 
teen, a  "reform"  that  certain  well-meaning  myopics 
instituted  in  peaceful  times,  resulted  in  an  appalling 
increase  in  drunkenness  and  profligacy. 

Doctors  know  that  when  habitual  heavy  drinkers 
abruptly  stop  drinking,  they  are  then  especially  liable 
to  delirium  tremens.  And  many,  apparently  robust 
while  they  drank,  have  lost  their  health  soon  after 
they  have  reformed.  I  have  personally  known  many 
such. 

A  habit  is  not  a  habit  until  after  the  organism  has 


ECONOMICALLY  CONSIDERED         273 

become  adapted  to,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  has  be- 
come dependent  on,  its  effects.  Nor  is  it  only  liquor 
drinking  that  is  hard  to  break  off.  When  one  stops 
smoking,  he  feels  it ;  and  he  experiences  discomfort  if 
he  foregoes  even  his  customary  morning  cup  of  coffee : 
His  vague,  uneasy  feelings  being  due  to  the  internal 
readjustments  necessitated  by  the  unaccustomed  lack. 

As  I  have  stated  in  my  chapter  on  Alcohol  and 
Efficiency,  it  is  not  necessary  that  a  substance  should 
immediately  increase  efficiency  in  order  to  be  valu- 
able. Some  drugs  greatly  increase  efficiency  tem- 
porarily, and  are,  for  that  very  reason,  dangerous,  al- 
though they  may  be  valuable  in  certain  conditions. 

Alcohol,  however,  does  not  reduce  efficiency  perma- 
nently; for,  by  relaxing  tension,  it  induces  rest,  and 
thereby  eventually  increases  efficiency. 

In  war  time  alcohol  would  be  useful  more  for  its 
soothing,  relaxing  and  narcotic  properties  than  for  its 
stimulating  effects.  Yet  would  the  physically  ex- 
hausted soldier  need  alcohol  to  stimulate  him ;  whereas 
worried,  tired,  and  anxious  civilians  would  need  the 
same  substance  to  dull  their  anxieties,  to  moderate 
their  fears,  and  often  to  lessen  their  real  hardships. 

In  regard  to  Prohibition  by  national  enactment, 
the  calm,  unbiased  opinion  of  that  staunch  churchman, 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  is  well  worth  reading  and  taking 
to  heart. 


274     THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

CARDINAL    GIBBONS   ON    THE   NATIONAL   PROHIBITION   OP 
ALCOHOL  x 

"I  would  regard  the  passage  of  a  Federal  prohi- 
bition law  as  a  national  catastrophe,  little  short  of  a 
crime  against  the  spiritual  and  physical  well-being  of 
the  American  people.  .  .  . 

"I  am  firmly  and  unalterably  opposed  [also]  to  the 
enactment  of  [even]  State-wide  prohibitory  legisla- 
tion, for  such  sweeping  measures  mean  that  the  rural 
districts,  for  instance,  can  force  their  sumptuary 
judgment  upon  the  urban  districts.  This  is  a  denial 
of  self-government,  an  infringement  upon  personal 
liberty.  Moreover,  the  liquor  problem  in  the  rural 
districts,  and  the  liquor  problem  in  the  urban  dis- 
tricts, are  problems  of  vastly  different  aspects. 

' '  To  take  only  one  feature  of  this  difference :  Ex- 
perience has  shown  that  prohibition  can  be  enforced 
in  the  country,  but  not  in  the  city.  Thus,  with  State- 
wide liquor  legislation,  the  rural  districts  can  pass 
prohibitory  judgment  upon  the  urban  districts,  with- 
out any  experience  or  knowledge  of  the  latter 's  needs. 

"The  reasons  against  State  prohibition  apply  with 
even  greater  strength  against  National  prohibition. 
It  requires  no  argument  to  show  that  the  greater  the 
distances  that  separate  communities  the  less  will  be 
their  sympathy  with,  and  their  knowledge  of,  each 
other's  conditions  and  needs. 

"Then  there  is  this  further  reason,  a  reason  that 
is  so  weighty  that  it  alone  should  nullify  all  talk  of 

i  Published  in  the  New  York  Times  on  April  29,  1917. 


ECONOMICALLY  CONSIDERED         275 

National  prohibition:  If  the  prohibitionists  succeed 
in  mustering  the  necessary  strength  to  enact  their 
sumptuary  law,  one  of  two  things  is  going  to  happen 
in  the  states  that  have  had  prohibitory  legislation 
forced  upon  them — either  these  states  will  ignore  the 
unpopular  law,  or  that  law  will  be  enforced  by  Fed- 
eral authority. 

"All  history  shows  that  you  can  not  legislate  moral- 
ity into  a  people ;  that  the  law  that  is  enacted  against 
the  majority  sentiment  almost  immediately  becomes 
a  dead  law.  .  .  . 

"The  belief  that  legislation  is  a  panacea  for  all 
social  ills  is  one  of  the  great  evils  of  the  day.  To  take 
the  law  out  of  its  proper  field  is  to  make  the  law 
abortive,  and  abortive  laws  breed  popular  contempt 
for  all  legal  authority.  There  is  already  a  dangerous 
sentiment  of  this  kind  in  our  country.  To  add  to  it 
by  enacting  an  abortive  law  of  such  universal  signifi- 
cance as  a  national  prohibition  statute  would  work  an 
incalculable  injury  to  the  spiritual  well-being  of  the 
American  people. 

"To  enforce  in  the  various  States  an  unpopular 
sumptuary  law  by  Federal  authority  and  Federal  offi- 
cials would  be  so  vicious  in  practice,  so  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  American  institutions,  that  none  but  the 
most  fanatical  prohibitionist  could  indorse  it.  But 
even  such  a  fanatic  should  be  given  pause  by  a  little 
reflection  on  the  sinister  precedent  that  would  be  es- 
tablished by  such  an  enforcement  of  such  a  law. 

"The  history  of  the  world  down  to  the  present  time 
demonstrates  the  fact  that  people  always  have  in- 


276      THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT  ALCOHOL 

dulged,  and,  in  all  probability,  always  will  indulge, 
in  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks.  It  is  true  that  the  use 
of  wines  and  liquors,  when  abused,  leads  to  lamentable 
consequences;  yet,  the  best  of  things  are  liable  to 
abuse.  Take  the  tongue,  for  instance.  We  all  know 
the  social  and  domestic  joy  and  utility  derived  from 
conversation,  and  yet  the  bad  use  of  the  tongue  leads 
daily  to  lying  and  misrepresentation,  to  quarrels  and 
slander,  to  bloodshed,  and  often  to  murder.  But 
would  we  be  justified  in  putting  a  padlock  on  our 
mouths  because  of  the  occasional  misuse  of  the  tongue  ? 

"We  should  regulate  the  use  of  intoxicants,  as  we 
regulate  the  use  of  our  tongues,  by  proper  safeguards 
and  restraints. 

"What  I  recommend  is  the  passage  of  laws  that  look 
toward  the  inculcation  in  the  people  of  habits  of  tem- 
perance. I  am  an  advocate  of  high  license,  and  laws 
connected  with  it  rigidly  enforcing  regulations  for  the 
conduct  of  drinking  places.  There  should  be  heavy 
fines  imposed  for  infractions  of  the  laws,  and  if  the 
violations  are  continued  the  license  should  be  with- 
drawn absolutely. 

"The  American  people  already  show  a  strong  drift 
toward  temperance.  Drunkenness  is  no  longer  re- 
garded, either  in  society  or  industry,  with  the  good- 
natured  tolerance  that  it  was  only  a  few  years  ago. 
Widespread  health  instruction  in  our  schools,  col- 
leges, newspapers  and  magazines  is  another  great 
power  for  good.  Then,  too,  our  industrial  and  com- 
mercial life  has  increased  so  in  complexity  and  in- 


ECONOMICALLY  CONSIDERED         277 

tensity  that  the  man  who  drinks  to  excess  is  inevitably 
eliminated. 

' '  It  is  infinitely  better  for  humanity  if  it  is  allowed 
to  exercise  its  own  will  power  rather  than  to  attempt 
to  drive  it  and  to  regulate  it  by  laws.  We  develop  a 
higher  type  of  man  spiritually — a  better  citizen,  a  bet- 
ter neighbor,  a  better  husband,  a  better  father — by 
requiring  him  to  use  his  own  initiative  in  moral  mat- 
ters, rather  than  by  attempting  to  hold  him  constantly 
in  legislative  leading  strings. 

"I  believe  that  we  can  attain  national  temperance, 
but  I  am  firm  in  the  belief  that  any  enactment  of  a 
widespread  prohibition  measure  is  a  long  step  back- 
ward. ' ' 


THE  END 


INDEX 


Absinthe,  134,  135,  137,  138; 
per  cent,  of  alcohol  in,  38. 

Abstainers,  longevity  of,  161, 
163;  habits  of,  165;  health 
of,  166;  physically  consid- 
ered, 82,  168;  economy  of, 
178;  and  prohibitionists, 
35;  mentality  of,  81,  82;  in 
tropics,  97,  98,  102;  and 
candy,  102;  and  water,  102, 
182;  effects  of  tea  and  coffee 
on,  182,  183;  number  of, 
175,  176. 

Abstemious  countries,  crime 
and  poverty  in,  208. 

Abstinence,  and  disease,  210. 

Active  exercise,  the  heart, 
vascular  system  and,  262, 
263. 

Alcohol,  effect  on  dog,  107; 
and  efficiency,  92,  93,  103, 
et  seq.,  108,  109,  273;  and 
deficiency,  34;  opinions  of 
sane  scientists  of,  36,  37; 
and  body  temperature,  23, 
102,  140;  benefits  of,  25, 
102;  sedative  effects  of,  25, 
26,  110,  111,273;  desire  for, 
6;  in  poor  and  in  rich  - 
countries,  81,  82;  per  cent, 
of,  in  common  drinks,  38; 
its  part  in  history,  83; 
sweets  and,  84-87,  102; 
sugar  and  carbohydrates 
changed  into,  by  digestive 

279 


ferments,  85,  86;  in  plants, 
86;  candy  as  a  substitute 
for,  86,  87;  affinity  for  oxy- 
gen, 86,  132;  as  a  nutrient, 
sedative,  and  aid  to  diges- 
tion, 88;  soldiers,  sharp- 
shooters and,  89-91;  time 
to  give,  91,  92,  109;  relax- 
ing effects  of,  91,  92,  118, 
119;  effects  of  much,  92; 
necessity  of,  90;  in  tropics, 
97,  et  seq.;  as  a  stimulant, 
110-115,  117,  118,  119,  124; 
as  a  narcotic,  110,  111,  114; 
effect  on  heart  and  brain, 
110;  on  orators  and  speak- 
ers, 110-113;  on  nervous- 
ness, 111;  as  a  depressant, 
111,  112;  effects  on  neuro- 
muscular  system,  118,  119; 
and  famous  men,  113;  in 
diphtheria,  120-124;  in  ty- 
phoid fever,  123;  made  in 
human  body,  126;  easily 
oxidized,  132;  effects  when 
injected,  133,  134;  effect  on 
circulation,  146;  on  irrita- 
bility and  grief,  150,  151; 
on  sensibilities,  152;  and 
obesity,  179-181;  and 
longevity,  180-182;  and 
diseases,  181,  182;  and 
vigor,  181,  182;  and  mov- 
ing pictures,  184,  185;  and 
two  very  old  men,  186,  187; 


280 


INDEX 


ills  laid  to,  213;  alleged  ef- 
fects of  small  amounts, 
249;  in  the  army,  272;  to 
soldiers  in  Europe,  272. 

Alcohol  Commission  of  Nor- 
way, effects  of  light  and 
strong  alcoholic  drinks,  70, 
71 ;  regulations  of  saloons, 
71;  drink  and  destitution, 
204. 

Alcohol  habit,  193,  194. 

Alcohol  medication,  Dr.  A. 
Jacobi,  119-122,  128,  129. 

Alcoholic  craving,  and  candy, 
84. 

Alcoholism,  and  defectiveness, 
144;  and  fusel  oil,  146;  and 
pauperism,  177,  178;  in 
Bohemia,  216,  217;  in 
France,  220,  221 ;  what  it  is, 
227. 

Alcoholist,  definition  of,  222. 

Ale,  wholesomeness  of,  31; 
per  cent,  of  alcohol  in,  38; 
nutritious,  sedative,  and  aid 
to  digestion,  88;  composi- 
tion of  English,  101;  and 
nervous,  overworked  moth- 
ers, 106,  107. 

Ale  and  beer  drinkers  well 
nourished,  223. 

Amendment  to  constitution, 
9;  difficulty  of  repealing,  10. 

Americans,  their  need  of  re- 
laxation, 106;  nervous  ex- 
haustion of,  106,  107;  and 
destitution,  203. 

Animals,  sexual  excitement  in, 
6;  effects  on,  of  injections 
of  alcohol,  of  absinthe  es- 
sence, of  extracts  of  pro- 


teins, of  casein,  133,  134, 
136. 

Anti-Alcohol  movement  in 
Europe,  effect  of  war  upon, 
88;  absurd  statements  in, 
216;  savagery  of  Belgians, 
217,  218,  219. 

Anti-Alcoholists,  unwarranted 
assumptions  of,  132,  133, 
134. 

Anti-Saloon  League  of  Amer- 
ica, 7. 

Apoplexy,  increase  of,  233;  a 
circulatory  disease,  265 ; 
causes  of,  265,  266;  and 
lack  of  exercise,  265,  266; 
commonness  of,  267 ;  rare  in 
young,  267;  prevention  of, 
267,  268;  and  handstands, 
267. 

Army,  alcohol  in,  272. 

Arteries,  elasticity  of,  in  two 
very  old  drinking  men,  186, 
187;  and  exercise,  266, 
267;  of  the  middle-aged 
and  elderly,  237. 

Arteriosclerosis,  210;  slug- 
gish circulation  and,  239, 
240;  diet,  food  idiosyncra- 
sies, and,  242-247;  nervous 
shock  and,  242,  243,  246; 
diet,  exercise  and,  245,  247; 
animal  proteins  and,  247. 

Arthritis,  210. 

Ascetics,  longevity  of,  166. 

Aschaffenberg,  108. 

Aschenbrandt,  effects  of  co- 
caine, 116. 

Atheroma,  cause  of,  239,  240. 

Athletes,  premature  deaths  of, 
238. 


INDEX 


281 


Atrophy,  of  the  liver  and  kid- 
neys, 210. 

Atwater,  154. 

Author,  age  of,  249;  effects  of 
moderate  drinking  on,  249, 
255;  present  vigor  of,  249, 
250,  255 ;  height  and  weight 
of,  249,  250;  strength  of, 
250;  exercises  of,  250,  251; 
no  exception,  255 ;  results  of 
experiments  on  his  own 
heart,  258,  259. 

Authors,  famous,  and  tubercu- 
losis, 113. 


Bacilli,  typhoid,  destruction 
of,  171,  172. 

Balkan  peninsula,  natives  of, 
longevity  of,  166. 

Barley,  value  of  crushed,  for 
cattle,  270. 

Beer,  desire  for,  and  sedative 
effects  of,  6;  prohibition  of, 
indefensible,  15;  per  cent, 
of  alcohol  in,  38;  and 
drunkenness,  47,  48;  whole- 
someness  of,  (J.  Koren), 
70;  effect  on  health, 
strength  and  efficiency,  103, 
167,  168;  and  Germans, 
107;  and  bread,  142;  com- 
position of,  179;  composi- 
tion of  Munich,  142;  and 
cheese,  143;  as  a  nutrient, 
142,  143;  consumption  of, 
196;  and  obesity,  210,  211; 
and  the  kidneys  and  heart, 
211;  effect  of,  on  Belgians, 
218,  219;  and  cancer,  225, 
226. 


Beer  and  wine,  recommenda- 
tion of,  in  Russia,  55. 

Beer  drinkers,  efficiency  of, 
173;  obesity  of,  179,  180; 
diseases  of,  212. 

Beer  drinking,  effects  of  ex- 
cessive, 211. 

Beer  gardens,  in  Germany,  69. 

Belgians,  greatest  beer  drink- 
ers, efficiency  of,  173;  al- 
leged savagery  of,  217-219; 
and  alcohol,  218,  219. 

Benedicenti,  cocaine,  117. 

Benedict,  108. 

Benham,  Dr.  F.  Lucas,  health 
of  abstainers  in  tropics,  97, 
98. 

Berezin,  experiments  on  rab- 
bits and  carp,  110. 

Beverages,  alcoholic,  grain 
used  for,  269,  270. 

Binz,  127;  tissue  waste,  129. 

Bishop,  Ernest  C.,  drug 
addicts,  28. 

Bishop,  Louis  Fauge"res,  ar- 
teriosclerosis and  diet,  242- 
247. 

Blood,  distribution  of,  effect 
of  alcohol  and  of  exercise 
on,  140,  146;  of  coffee  and 
tea  on,  140;  stability  of 
composition  of,  133. 

Blood  vessels,  and  water 
drinking,  211. 

Bodily  warmth,  and  alcohol, 
140. 

Body,  relaxing,  by  alcohol, 
106;  and  exercise,  261,  262. 

Booth,  Chas.,  pauperism,  202. 

Bowers,  Dr.  Edwin  F.,  work 
and  drink,  23,  24;  alcohol's 


282 


INDEX 


affinity    for     oxygen,     132, 

133;  fecundity  and  alcohol, 

197. 
Brain,  and  alcohol,  106,  110, 

147;  stupefaction  of,  194. 
Brain  workers,  249 ;  and  alco- 
hol, 162,  163. 
Brandy,    per   cent,   of   A.    in, 

38;  in  pneumonia,  124. 
Branthwaite,     Dr.,     fecundity 

of  drunkards,  197,  198. 
Brewers,  grain  used  by,  270. 
Bright's  disease,  increase  of, 

233. 

Bronchitis,  233. 
Brouardel,     Dr.,     alcoholism 

and  tuberculosis,  223. 
Bugbee,   Dr.   H.   G.,   physical 

deterioration,  253. 
Business    men,    and    alcohol, 

147. 

CafSs,  in  France,  69. 

Cancer,  233;  and  alcohol,  225, 

226. 
Candy,    and    alcohol,    84-87, 

102;    injuriousness    of,    87, 

183,    184;    adulteration   of, 

184. 
Canteens,    195 ;    "reforming," 

272. 
Carbohydrates,   become  sugar 

and  alcohol  in  body,  85,  86, 

101. 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  on  National 

Prohibition,  273-277. 
Carlyle,    Thomas,    and    noise, 

77,  78. 
Casein,  effects  of  injections  of, 

136,  137. 
Causes,  easy  to  mistake,  259. 


Cells,  alcohol,  distilled  water, 
salt,  and,  139;  alcohol  and 
germ,  197,  198. 

Centenarians,  132. 

Champagne,  per  cent,  of  alco- 
hol in,  38. 

Character,  of  drunkards,  190, 
199,  201;  of  criminals,  205, 
206. 

Chicago,  nineteenth  ward  of, 
saloon  conditions  in,  65-68. 

Children,  of  drunkards,  145; 
deficiency  and  destitution 
of,  190-192,  201 ;  and  tuber- 
culosis, 225. 

Chill,  aborted  by  alcohol,  146. 

China,  non-alcoholic  and  un- 
progressive,  173. 

Christian  Scientist,  and  the 
cat,  191. 

Circulation,  and  exercise,  238; 
and  arteriosclerosis,  238- 
240;  sluggish,  238,  262. 

Circulatory  diseases,  preven- 
tion of,  263. 

Cirrhosis,  210. 

Claret,  per  cent,  of  alcohol  in, 
38. 

Club,  workingman's,  64,  65. 

Clubs,  men's,  64. 

Cocaine,  and  fatigue,  115-117. 

Coffee,  prohibition  of,  17; 
irritability,  nervousness,  in- 
somnia and,  140,  147,  148, 
150. 

Coffee  and  tea  drinking,  effects 
of,  182,  183. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  labor 
unions,  20-22;  importation 
of  opium,  28,  29;  stock 
yards  of  Chicago,  49,  50; 


INDEX 


283 


intemperance  and  destitu- 
tion, 201-203;  convicts  and 
drink,  205,  206. 

Composition  of  blood,  stability 
of,  133. 

Consumption,  inebriety,  and 
undernourishment,  212,  213, 
223. 

Convents,  girls  in,  74. 

Convicts,  and  drink,  205,  206. 

Cornaro,  166. 

Corpuscles,  blood,  and  alcohol, 
229. 

Cranks,  73. 

Craving  for  alcohol,  192-194. 

Cretinism,  in  Bohemia,  causes 
of,  217. 

Crime,  and  drink,  205-209. 

Criminals,  habitual,  3,  4; 
character  of,  205,  206;  alco- 
holic craving  of,  207;  and 
women,  208;  and  cocaine, 
117;  sobriety  of  high-grade, 
208. 

Criminality,  age  of,  207;  in 
Belgium,  218,  219. 

Death,  263. 

Defectiveness,  and  alcoholism, 

144. 
Deficiency    and    alcohol,     34, 

190-192. 
Delicate,    the,    morbidity    of, 

168,     169;     incidence     and 

case    mortality    of    typhoid 

fever  among,  169,  170. 
Delicateness,  of  author,  when 

a  boy,  248. 

Delirium  tremens,  212,  272. 
Denatured    alcohol,    effect    of 

drinking,  54. 


Denmark,  saloons  in,  70. 

Department  of  Labor,  con- 
sumption of  strong,  and  of 
malt  liquors,  19,  20. 

Desire  for  alcohol,  5,  6. 

Despair,  and  alcohol,  151. 

Destitution,  and  alcohol,  201, 
203,  204. 

Deterioration,  man's  physical, 
231. 

Diabetes,  112;  increase  of, 
233. 

Dickens,  Charles,  and  noise, 
78. 

Diet,  and  arteriosclerosis, 
242-247 ;  the  modern  mania, 
260. 

Diphtheria,  alcohol  in,  120- 
124,  128,  129. 

Dipsomania,  41. 

Diseases,  of  the  frail,  and  of 
the  robust,  180;  and  alco- 
hol, 181,  182,  210,  211; 
mortality  from  infectious, 
greatest  among  robust,  171, 
172;  decrease  of  infectious, 
232,  233;  increase  of  circu- 
latory, 233,  234;  control  of 
germ,  234. 

Distillation,  private,  easily 
accomplished,  45 ;  in 
Sweden,  45-47;  illicit,  in 
Russia,  53,  54. 

Dogs,  and  cocaine,  116. 

Dominant  races,  and  intoxi- 
cants, 82. 

Draft,  the,  more  rejections  in 
"dry,"  than  in  "wet"  dis- 
tricts, 82. 

Drink,  weakness  for,  4;  and 
poverty,  201;  and  crime, 


284 


INDEX 


205-209;  and  disease,  210, 
211. 

Drink  complex,  78,  79. 

Drink  problem,  57. 

Drinkers,  longevity  of,  161- 
163;  not  careful  of  health, 
162;  accomplish  most,  165; 
physiques  of,  168;  mortality 
of,  174;  small  per  cent,  of, 
176;  heavy,  and  delirium 
tremens,  272;  heavy,  among 
oldest  men  in  Germany, 
188,  189. 

Drinking,  general  desire  for, 
and  difficulty  of  preventing, 
6 ;  in  Italy,  Spain,  Portugal, 
39,  40;  "dry"  territory  and, 
53;  and  horrors  of  war,  93; 
universality  of,  144;  sorrow 
and  indifference  as  causes 
of,  144;  and  insanity,  144, 
145 ;  with  meals,  153 ;  effects 
of  moderate,  160;  and  lon- 
gevity, 172;  health,  happi- 
ness, efficiency,  and,  172, 
173;  among  German  stu- 
dents, 196;  cancer  and,  225, 
226;  moderate,  and  inebri- 
ety, 256. 

Drinks,  effects  of  light,  39; 
prohibition  of  light,  inde- 
fensible, 15. 

Drug  addiction,  in  prohibition 
states,  27,  28;  increase  of, 
27,  28. 

Drugs,  prohibition  of  danger- 
ous, 14. 

Drunkards,  children  of,  33, 
145,  190-192;  defectiveness 
of,  34,  190-192;  character 
of,  190,  199,  201;  mortality 


of  reformed,  173,  174;  atti- 
tude of,  toward  prohibition, 
79,  80;  always  spirit  drink- 
ers, 38,  146 ;  dislike  of  alco- 
hol, 145;  prefer  cheap 
liquors,  146 ;  and  women, 
145;  fecundity  of  women, 
197,  198. 

Drunkenness,  evils  of,  cure 
and  treatment  of,  32,  33 ;  in 
saloons,  65,  66. 

"Dry"  states,  number  of,  in 
1916,  7. 

"Dry"  territory,  and  drinking, 
53. 

Economic  reasons  for  temper- 
ance, 93-96. 

Efficiency,  and  sleep,  92,  105; 
food,  fatigue  and,  104,  105; 
and  alcohol,  92,  93,  108, 
109,  172,  173,  273;  hunger 
and,  103,  104;  beer  and, 
103;  definition  of,  106; 
benefits  of  reducing,  105, 
106. 

Eggs,  and  alcohol,  126. 

England  and  Wales,  drinking 
and  crime  in,  208,  209. 

Epilepsy,  and  alcohol,  227, 
228. 

Eroticism,  and  religion,  72, 
73. 

Ether,  effects  of,  114. 

Ethyl  alcohol,  effect  on  guinea 
pig  of  injecting,  12. 

Europe,  prohibition  in,  271. 

Excitement,  sexual,  and  alco- 
hol, 7. 

Exercise,  effect  of,  on  sex  in- 
stinct, 7;  on  circulation, 


INDEX 


285 


146,  238;  on  heart  and 
vascular  system,  240,  251, 
258,  266,  267;  need  of,  261, 
262;  physicians'  need  of, 
257;  result  of  giving  up, 
240;  lack  of,  causes  heart 
disease,  gout,  obesity,  ar- 
teriosclerosis, and  physical 
deterioration,  212,  235-237, 
239,  240,  245,  247,  253,  254. 
Exercises,  of  author,  250,  251. 

Fanatics,  general  and  reli- 
gious, 72,  73;  hysteria  of, 
73,  74;  B.  S.  Talmey  on,  75- 
77. 

Fat,  the,  mortality  of,  179; 
gluttony  and  laziness  of, 
179;  and  alcohol,  179-182. 

Fatigue,  and  efficiency,  104, 
105;  and  cocaine,  115-117. 

Fecundity,  and  alcohol,  197, 
198. 

Fergusson,  effect  of  rum  ra- 
tion on  a  regiment,  158. 

Fever,  Dr.  F.  N.  Pottenger  on, 
112. 

Fishberg,  Dr.  M.,  tuberculosis, 
223-225. 

Fisk,  Eugene  L.,  mortality  of 
heavy  drinkers,  173,  174; 
abstainers,  175,  176. 

Fiske,  John,  benign  effects  of 
alcohol,  164. 

Flint,  Dr.  Austin,  256. 

Food,  and  efficiency,  104;  fu- 
tility of  scientific,  260,  261. 

Foreigners,  intemperance  of, 
51,  203. 

Frail,  the,  diseases  of,  180; 
and  alcohol,  181,  182. 


France,   cafes   in,   69;    tuber- 
culosis in,  220-222. 
Freud,  effects  of  cocaine,  116. 
Fusel-oil,  146,  194. 

Gambling,  after  prohibition, 
55. 

Genius,  and  alcohol,  113. 

German  Empire,  growth  of, 
197. 

German  Imperial  Statistical 
Bureau,  alcohol  and  pau- 
perism, 202. 

Germans,  sturdiness  of,  168; 
efficiency  of,  106,  107. 

Germany,  achievements  of, 
173;  beer  gardens  in,  69. 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  on  Na- 
tional Prohibition,  273-277. 

Gin,  per  cent,  of  alcohol  in, 
38. 

Gordon,  Ernest,  97,  135,  138, 
142,  154,  195,  215;  Bo- 
hemia and  alcohol,  216,  217. 

Gout,  108,  210;  causes  of, 
212;  and  whiskey,  212. 

Grain,  amount  and  kinds  of, 
used  for  alcoholic  bever- 
ages, 269,  270. 

Grief,  and  alcohol,  150,  151. 

Guinea  pigs,  effect  of  alcohol 
on,  127. 

Habit,  liquor,  207. 

Habits,  272,  273. 

Hand-stand,  the,  and  apo- 
plexy, 267. 

Happiness,  and  moderate 
drinking,  172,  173. 

Haycraft,  prohibition,  insan- 
ity, and  pauperism,  177. 


286 


INDEX 


Head,  lowering  of,  and  apo- 
plexy, 267,  268;  blood-ves- 
sels in,  267. 

Headache,  anaemic,  and  alco- 
hol, 147. 

Health,  and  moderate  drink- 
ing, 172,  173;  of  the  prole- 
tariat, 257;  price  of,  260. 

Heart,  and  alcohol,  110,  119, 
147;  diseases  of,  210;  causes 
of  "fatty,"  210-212;  effect 
of  beer  and  water  on,  211; 
and  exercise,  251;  author's, 
258,  259. 

Heart  diseases,  and  overwork, 
187,  188;  increase  of,  233; 
in  childhood,  youth  and 
middle-age,  235;  causes  of, 
235,  236. 

Hearts,  of  the  middle-aged 
and  elderly,  237. 

Heavy  weights,  251. 

Heroin,  14. 

High  license,  of  saloons,  69; 
results  of,  70. 

Hippocrates,   120. 

Hobson,  13, 

"Horror"  stories,  196. 

Horse,  walking  a,  241,  242. 

Horses,  longevity  of  good  and 
of  poor,  167;  fire,  236;  feed 
of  idle,  263. 

Horsley,  Sir  Victor,  sobriety 
in  lumber  camps,  22;  alco- 
hol for  soldiers,  90;  effect 
of  alcohol  on  tissue  waste, 
129,  130,  131;  alcohol  and 
puppies,  143;  internal  or- 
gans, 148,  149;  alcohol  and 
the  stomach,  152,  153;  alco- 
hol in  hot  countries,  158; 


snake  venom  and  alcohol, 
159,  160;  suckling,  fecun- 
dity, and  alcohol,  196,  197; 
overlying  of  infants,  198; 
apparent  bias  of,  215;  epi- 
lepsy and  alcohol,  227,  228; 
blood  corpuscles  and  alco- 
hol, 229;  pneumonia,  229; 
effects  of  small  amounts  of 
alcohol,  248. 

Human  organism,  and  the 
"perfect  scientific  food," 
260,  261. 

Hysteria,  of  fanatics,  73,  74. 

Idiosyncrasies,  food,  and  ar- 
teriosclerosis, 242-247. 

Ill-nourished,  diseases  of  the, 
180;  and  alcohol,  181,  182. 

Indifference,  of  heavy  drink- 
ers, 144;  a  cause  of  in- 
ebriety, 195. 

Individual,  rights  of,  30-32. 

Indolence,  260;  and  physical 
deterioration,  263. 

Inebriates,  deficiency,  charac- 
ter, and  children  of,  190- 
192;  and  cheap  liquors,  146; 
indifference  of,  195. 

Inebriety,  causes  of,  194,  195; 
delirium  tremens,  nervous 
disorders,  consumption  and, 
212,  213,  223. 

Infant  mortality,  reduction  of, 
232. 

Infectious  diseases,  decrease 
of,  232,  233. 

Injections,  effects  of,  of  alco- 
hol, of  absinthe  essence,  of 
protein  extracts,  and  of 
casein,  133,  134,  136. 


INDEX 


287 


Insanity,  hereditary,  145 ; 
syphilis  and,  145;  and  alco- 
hol, 144,  145 ;  and  inebriety, 
145,  221,  222;  and  prohibi- 
tion, 177. 

Insomnia,  coffee,  tea,  and,  150. 

Instincts,  indestructibility  of, 
5;  reliability  of,  164. 

Intemperance,  decrease  in,  19, 
20;  destitution  and,  201- 
204;  rape  and,  207,  208; 
among  high-grade  criminals, 
208;  of  women,  203;  of 
foreigners,  51,  203. 

Internal  organs,  alcohol  and 
the,  147;  caffeine,  theine, 
and  degeneration  of  the, 
148,  149. 

Intoxicants,  and  sexual  de- 
sire, 6 ;  and  dominant  races, 
82. 

Intoxication,  amount  of  alco- 
hol necessary  for,  114; 
other  than  by  alcohol,  140, 
141;  occasional,  193,  194. 

Invalids,  longevity  of,  166. 

Irish,  robustness  of,  168. 

Irritability,  coffee,  tea,  alco- 
hol and,  140,  150. 

Irritants,  as  stimulants,  112. 

Italy,  drinking  in,  39,  40. 

Jacob,  Captain,  death  throes 
of  injected  guinea  pig,  134; 
absurd  conclusion  there- 
from, 135,  137,  138. 

Jacobi,  Dr.  A.,  Alcohol  Medi- 
cation, 119-124,  128,  129. 

James,  Dr.  W.  B.,  alcohol  and 
the  neuro-muscular  system, 
118,  119. 


Jones,  Dr.  Robt.,  defectiveness 
of  inebriates  and  their  pro- 
genitors, 191,  192. 

Japan,  achievements  of,  173. 

Kassowitz,  effect  of  alcohol  on 
dog,  107. 

Kidneys,  237. 

Kitchener,  Lord,  alcohol  in 
army,  92. 

Koren,  John,  amendment  to 
Constitution,  10;  prohibi- 
tion in  South,  11;  illicit  dis- 
tillation in  South,  53;  re- 
sults of  prohibition,  53 ;  de- 
crease in  spirit  drinking, 
20 ;  beer  and  wine  in  Russia, 
55;  wholesomeness  of  beer, 
70;  drink  and  destitution, 
204. 

Kraepelin,  108. 

Labor  Unions,  sobriety  of,  20, 
21. 

Lactation,  and  alcohol,  196, 
197. 

Lecturers,  and  alcohol,  110- 
113. 

Lee,  Dr.  Frederick  S.,  effect 
of  alcohol  on  muscles,  127, 
128. 

Life,  263. 

Life  Insurance  Cos.,  reformed 
drunkards  in,  173,  174;  ab- 
stainers in,  175,  176;  statis- 
tics of,  not  wholly  reliable, 
178;  best  risks  for,  181. 

Liquor  drinking,  danger  of, 
38. 

Liquor  evil,  less,  when  laws 
are  enforced,  49. 


288 


INDEX 


Liquor  laws,  necessity  of,  49. 

Liquors,  grain  for  fermented, 
and  for  distilled,  269,  270; 
prohibition  of  strong,  14, 
15;  decrease  in  use  of 
strong,  20. 

Local  Option,  59. 

Locomotor  ataxia,  specific 
cause  of,  213. 

Longevity,  of  abstainers,  of 
drinkers,  of  hard  physical 
workers,  of  brain-workers, 
161,  163;  of  ascetics,  in- 
valids, and  the  robust,  166, 
167;  of  good,  and  of  poor, 
horses,  167;  of  natives  of 
the  Balkan  peninsula,  166; 
strength  and,  172;  efficiency 
and,  172;  moderate  drinking 
and,  172,  180-182;  of  physi- 
cians, 256. 

Lumberers,  sobriety  of,  22, 
23. 

Luxury,  and  disease,  234. 

Magdeburg,  relation  of  drink 
and  pauperism  in,  202,  203. 

Malt  beverages,  sedative  ef- 
fects of,  15;  increase  in  use 
of,  19,  20. 

Man,  limitations  of,  3,  5; 
weakness  and  responsibility 
of,  4 ;  per  cent,  of,  water  in, 
100;  effect  of  cocaine  on, 
115-117;  alcohol  in  tissues 
of,  138-140;  temptations  of, 
199,  200;  physical  deteriora- 
tion of,  231,  249,  253. 

Meals,  water,  wine,  or  beer 
with,  153. 

Meat-eating,    harm   of    exces- 


sive, 15,  40;  prohibition  of, 
18. 

"Medicine"  ball,  benefits  and 
advantages  of,  251-253. 

Memory,  and  alcohol,  118,  119. 

Men,  effects  of  giving  up  ex- 
ercise on,  237,  238;  alcohol 
and  famous,  113;  temper- 
ance of  normal,  192. 

Metchnikoff,  sudden  death  of, 
261. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  78. 

Miners  of  the  Borinage,  and 
alcohol,  216. 

Misfortune,  and  alcohol,  144. 

Mixed  infection,  alcohol  in, 
120-123,  128. 

Moore,  E.  C.,  saloon  conditions 
in  19th  ward  of  Chicago, 
65-68. 

Morbidity,  of  the  delicate,  and 
of  the  robust,  168,  169. 

Morphine,  14. 

Mortality,  increase  of,  in  Rus- 
sia, after  prohibition,  54; 
of  the  fat,  179;  from  ty- 
phoid fever  in  army,  169, 
170;  from  typhus  fever  in 
Ireland,  170,  171;  from  in- 
fectious diseases,  171,  172; 
of  reformed  drunkards, 
moderate  drinkers,  and 
heavy  drinkers,  173-175;  of 
physicians  and  general  pop- 
ulation, 256,  257;  reduction 
of  general,  232. 

Mosso,  Ugolino,  115;  effects  of 
cocaine,  116,  117. 

Moving  pictures,  and  alcohol, 
184,  185. 

Muensterberg,  Hugo,  188,  261. 


INDEX 


289 


Muscles,  effect  of  alcohol  on, 

127,  128,  155. 
Muscular    work,    heavy,    and 

alcohol,  153,  154. 

Narcotic,  alcohol  as  a,  110, 
111,  114. 

National  Prohibition,  conse- 
quences of,  4,  5,  45;  Taft 
on,  8,  9;  ratification  of,  9, 
10;  injustice  and  danger  of, 
16;  tyranny  of,  25;  unjust 
to  individual,  30,  31;  effect 
of,  on  normal  men,  33 ;  folly 
of,  34;  civic  deceit  after, 
52;  by,  and  for,  defectives, 
80;  no  need  of,  176,  177; 
economy  plea  for,  269,  et 
seq.;  property  and  financial 
loss  from,  270,  271;  danger- 
ous in  war-time,  272;  Car- 
dinal Gibbons  on,  273-277. 

Neglect,  and  mortality  of  chil- 
dren, 199. 

Nephritis,  210;  in  soldiers, 
102;  and  syphilis,  213-215; 
increase  of,  233. 

Nerves,  effect  of  alcohol  on, 
141. 

Nervous  disorders,  and  alco- 
holism, 221,  222. 

Nervousness,  allayed  by  alco- 
hol, 111. 

Nervous  shock,  and  arterio- 
sclerosis, 246. 

Nervous  system,  and  alcohol, 
140-142,  156,  157. 

Neurasthenia,  coffee,  tea,  and, 
150. 

Neuro-muscular  system,  ef- 
fects of  alcohol  on,  118,  119. 


N.  Y.  Life  Insurance  Co.,  mor- 
tality of  reformed  drunk- 
ards, 173. 

Noise,  77,  78;  effect  of,  on 
nerves,  150. 

Northwestern  Mutual  Life  In- 
surance Co.,  mortality  of 
temperate  beer,  and  wine, 
drinkers,  174. 

Norway,  saloons  in,  70. 

Obesity,  and  alcohol,  179-181; 
causes  of,  210-212. 

Opium,  14;  increase  of  im- 
portation into  Germany,  28, 
29. 

Orators,  and  alcohol,  110-113. 

Organs,  internal,  effect  of  cof- 
fee and  tea  on,  140. 

Overeating,  and  arteriosclero- 
sis, 245. 

Overlying,  of  infants,  198. 

Overwork,  and  heart  disease, 
187,  188. 

Ovulation,  and  alcohol,  196. 

Ovum,  the,  and  alcohol,  197, 
198. 

Oxidation,  and  alcohol,  129- 
131. 

Oxygen,  affinity  of  alcohol  for, 
132. 

Paresis,  specific  cause  of,  213. 

Pauperism,  and  drink,  177, 
178,  202,  203. 

Physical  deterioration,  of  the 
middle-aged,  249,  253;  pre- 
vention of,  253,  254;  and 
indolence,  254,  263. 

Physical  exercise,  of  working 
classes,  240,  241. 


290 


INDEX 


Physical  exertion,  and  health, 
260. 

Physical  strength,  and  alco- 
hol, 140. 

Physical  work,  heavy,  and  al- 
cohol, 162,  163. 

Physicians,  need  exercise, 
257;  longevity  of,  256; 
death  rate,  and  chief  causes 
of  deaths  of,  256,  257. 

Plants,  alcohol  in,  86,  140. 

Pneumonia,  233;  pnd  alcohol, 
229,  230;  alcohol  in,  124. 

Poisons,  as  stimulants,  112. 

Portugal,  drinking  in,  40. 

Pottenger,  Dr.  F.  N.,  on  fever, 
112. 

Poverty,  and  drink,  201,  202; 
in  abstemious  countries, 
208. 

Presl,  Dr.,  cretinism,  217. 

Prohibition,  gains  in  state,  7 ; 
referendum  on,  10;  in 
South,  10,  11;  injustice  of 
state,  58,  59;  fanatical,  78- 
80;  and  insanity,  177. 

Prohibitionists,  craving  for 
liquor  of  many,  78,  79;  un- 
warranted claims  of,  132- 
134. 

Proletariat,  health  knowledge 
of,  257. 

Property,  and  prohibition, 
270,  271. 

Proteins,  effects  of  injections 
of  extracts  of,  12,  136;  nu- 
tritious orally,  136,  137; 
animal,  and  arteriosclerosis, 
247. 

Psychology,  of  fanatics,  72,  et 
seq.;  of  love,  75. 


Purity  complex,  73. 
Pulse,    effect    of    alcohol    on, 
118,  119. 

Quensel,  Dr.  Ulrik,  mortality 
statistics  and  alcohol,  174, 
175. 

Rabbits,  experiments  on, 
(Berezin),  110. 

Rape,  and  intemperance,  207, 
208. 

Ratification  of  National  Pro- 
hibition, states  necessary 
for,  9;  injustice  of,  and  dif- 
ficulty of  repeal  of,  10. 

Reed,  Dr.,  epilepsy,  228. 

Referendum  on  prohibition, 
10. 

"Reform,"  of  army  canteens, 
272. 

Reformers,  Utopian,  164. 

Reinach,  tuberculosis  and  al- 
cohol, 220,  221. 

Religion  and  eroticism,  72,  73. 

Rettich,  Dr.  H.,  drink  and 
pauperism,  203. 

Rivers,  Dr.  W.  H.  R.,  effect  of 
cocaine  on  fatigue,  115-117. 

Roberts,  Lord,  and  alcohol  in 
army,  92. 

Robinson,  Dr.  Beverley,  alco- 
hol in  grippe  pneumonia, 
124. 

Robust,  the,  longevity,  habits, 
and  morbidity  of,  166-169; 
incidence  and  case  mortal- 
ity of  typhoid  fever,  and 
other  infectious  diseases, 
among,  169-172. 

Romeyn,  tissue  waste,  129. 


INDEX 


291 


Root,  Elihu,  on  Federal  en- 
forcement of  woman  suf- 
frage, and,  inferentially,  of 
prohibition,  on  the  states, 
7,8. 

Rum,  per  cent,  of  alcohol  in, 
38. 

Russia,  results  of  prohibition 
of  vodka  in,  53-55. 


Saloons,  types  of,  64;  intoxi- 
cation in,  65;  in  Chicago, 
65-68 ;  substitutes  for, 
luxuries  in,  improvement  of, 
high  license  of,  and  its  re- 
sults, 68-70;  games,  music, 
dancing,  sociability  in,  69; 
failure  of  temperance,  69; 
uniform  taxation  of,  70; 
graded  taxation  of,  in  Nor- 
way, Sweden,  Denmark,  70; 
regulation  of,  200. 

Salt,  and  the  body  cells,  139. 

Schmiedeberg,  127. 

Sedative,  alcohol  as  a,  110, 
111. 

Sedentarians,  flabby  muscles, 
weak  hearts,  breathlessness, 
indolence  of,  260;  "medi- 
cine" ball  for,  253. 

Sepsis,  alcohol  in,  120,  123, 
128. 

Sexual  desire,  and  intoxicants, 
6. 

Shadwell,  A.,  poverty,  vice, 
crime  and  drink,  208.  209. 

Sharpshooters,  and  alcohol, 
90,  91. 

Skin,  effects  of  alcohol,  caf- 
feine, and  theine  on,  147. 


Sleep,  194;  and  efficiency,  92, 
105. 

Sluggish  circulation,  and  lack 
of  exercise,  262. 

Smith,  Dr.  Percy,  defectiveness 
of  alcoholic,  191. 

Smoking,  55-57,  249,  255. 

Snake  venom,  and  alcohol, 
159,  160. 

Sociability,  in  saloons,  69. 

"Soft"  drinks,  harmfulness  of, 
14,  31,  183,  184;  adultera- 
tion of,  184. 

Softening  of  the  brain,  specific 
cause  of,  213. 

Soldiers,  and  alcohol,  89-92, 
272. 

Sorrow,  "drowning,"  152. 

South,  prohibition  in,  10,  11. 

South  America,  effect  of  co- 
caine on  natives  of,  115. 

Spain,  drinking  in,  40. 

Speakers,  public,  and  alcohol, 
110-113. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  163,  168. 

Spirit  drinking,  effects  of  ex- 
cessive, 211. 

Sports,  athletic,  as  exercises, 
241. 

Starke,  Dr.  J.,  134,  141,  142, 
155;  heavy  drinking  of  old- 
est men  in  Germany,  188, 
189;  effects  of  much  fluid, 
211. 

Statistics,  unreliability  of, 
178. 

Stengel  and  Austin,  syphilis 
and  nephritis,  213-215. 

Sterility,  and  alcohol,  196, 
220. 

Stimulant,  alcohol  as  a,  112- 


292 


INDEX 


115,  124;   ether,  strychnine 

and  cocaine  as,  114-117. 
Stimulation,    193;    effects    of 

repeated,   powerful,   38,   39. 
Stockard,  Dr.  Chas.  R.,  eggs, 

guinea    pigs,    and    alcohol, 

126,  127. 

Stock  Yards  Districts  in  Chi- 
cago, Committee  of  Fifty's 

report  on,  49,  50. 
Stokes,  Chas.  F.,  drug  addicts, 

28. 
Stomach,    and    alcohol,     140, 

152,   153;   and  caffeine  and 

theine,  147. 
Strength,  longevity,  efficiency 

and,    172;    of   author,   250; 

joy  of,  263,  264. 
Structure,  and  non-use,  240. 
Strychnine,     effects     of,     114, 

115. 

Stupefaction,  193,  194. 
Sugar,    changed    into    alcohol 

by    digestive    ferments,    85, 

86,  101. 
Sutherland,     alcohol    in    the 

tropics,  99,  100. 
Sweden,    private    distillation 

in,  45,  46 ;  saloons  in,  70. 
Sweets,  harmfulness  of,  14,  15, 

31,    183,    184;   adulteration 

of,  184. 
Sypnilis,    and    insanity,    145 ; 

and      paresis,      213;       and 

nephritis,  213-215;   and  al- 
cohol,    215,     216;     specific 

cause  of,  216. 


Taft,  National  Prohibition  of 
Alcohol,  8,  9. 


Talmey,  B.  S.,  on  fanatics, 
75,  76,  77. 

Tea,  prohibition  of,  17;  irri- 
tability, insomnia,  nervous- 
ness and,  140,  147,  148, 
150. 

Temperament,  and  drunkards, 
201. 

Temperance,  economic  reasons 
for,  93-96;  practicability  of, 
71;  and  intemperance,  192, 
193. 

Temperate,  mortality  of,  174. 

Temptations,  of  man,  199,  200. 

Thrombus,  265. 

Thucydides,  170. 

Tissues,  alcohol  in  human, 
138-140. 

Tissue  waste,  and  alcohol,  129- 
131. 

Tobacco,  16,  17. 

Toxins,  stimulation  of,  112. 

Trees,  266. 

Tropics,  health  of  abstainers 
in,  97,  98,  102;  and  water 
drinking,  100,  102. 

Tuberculin,  225. 

Tuberculosis,  pulmonary,  112; 
and  famous  authors,  113; 
and  the  undernourished, 
212,  213,  223;  and  alcohol, 
212,  213,  220-223;  fallacies 
of,  223-225 ;  tuberculin  as  a 
test  of,  225;  and  children, 
225. 

Turkey,  173. 

Typhoid  fever,  alcohol  in,  123 ; 
in  American  army,  169, 
170;  incubation  and  pathol- 
ogy of,  171;  resistance  of 
body  cells  to,  171,  172. 


INDEX 


293 


Typhus  fever,  in  Ireland,  170, 
171. 

Unger,  Dist.  Atty.,  drug  ad- 
dicts, 27,  28. 

United  Hebrew  Charities  As- 
sociation, drink  and  desti- 
tution, 204. 

Urethral  canal,  degeneration 
of,  from  non-use,  238,  239. 

Valetudinarians,  167. 

Vascular  system,  of  two  very 
old  habitual  drinkers,  180, 
187;  and  exercise,  251. 

Vaughan,  Dr.  Victor  C.,  ef- 
fects of  injections  of  ex- 
tracts from  animal  and 
vegetable  proteins,  vs.  ef- 
fects by  mouth,  135-138; 
typhoid  fever  in  American 
army,  169,  170. 

Veins,  the,  and  exercise,  266, 
267. 

Vigor,  and  alcohol,  249,  250, 
254;  and  exercise,  254;  and 
smoking,  249,  255. 

Vodka,  per  cent,  of  alcohol  in, 
38. 

Vogt,  108. 

Von  Bunge,  Dr.  G.,  fecundity 
and  alcohol,  197. 

Walking,  as  an  exercise,  241, 
242,  262. 

Wartime,  National  Prohibi- 
tion in,  272,  273. 

Water,  per  cent,  of,  in  man, 
100-  palatable,  101;  not  al- 
ways obtainable,  14;  dis- 


tilled, and  cells,  139;  with 
meals,  153. 

Water-drinking,  in  tropics, 
100,  102;  among  abstainers, 
102;  heart,  blood  vessels 
and,  211. 

Webb-Kenyon  Act,  42^4. 

Well-nourished,  diseases  of, 
180;  and  alcohol,  181,  182. 

Whiskey,  per  cent,  of  alcohol 
in,  38 ;  effects  of,  39 ;  danger 
of,  115;  in  diphtheria,  122, 
123,  129;  effects  of  much, 
211,  212. 

Whiskey  drinkers,  diseases 
peculiar  to,  212. 

White,  Dr.  Wm.  A.,  prohibi- 
tion, insanity,  pauperism, 
177;  defectiveness  and  alco- 
holism, 177,  178. 

Winslow,  C.  E.  A.,  alcohol  and 
efficiency,  108,  109. 

Woman  Suffrage,  Elihu  Root 
on  Federal  enforcement  of, 
8. 

Women,  drinking  among,  203; 
weakness  of  criminals  for, 
208. 

Wood  alcohol,  effect  of  drink- 
ing, 54. 

Woodruff,  Lieut.  Col.  Chas.  E., 
health  of  abstainers  in 
tropics,  97. 

Working  classes,  work  not 
generally  arduous,  240,  241. 

Workingman's  club,  64,  65. 

Workingmen,  general  sobriety 
of,  21,  32,  33,  58;  deprived 
of  beer,  32;  rights  of,  58; 
deprived  of  drinking  and 
smoking,  60,  61;  savings  of, 


294  INDEX 

61;    habits    and    diversions      Worry,   effects   of,    149,    150; 
of,  62;  and  the  saloon,  64-          and  alcohol,  25,  26,  150. 
68. 


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